Sawt Falasteen - Buenos Aires bids farewell to Francis with tears, calls to action

As the 88-year-old was being laid to rest an ocean away in Rome, thousands gathered at his hometown cathedral for a dawn vigil and solemn mass, followed by a joyful procession of remembrance.

"He's here among the ragged ones, those of us living in the slums among the cardboard," said Esteban Trabuco, a 27-year-old rubbish picker.

"He knew about our suffering. How could we not be here today to say goodbye."

The mourners were urged to take up the activist mantle of Latin America's first pope and to carry on his work of creating an activist Church that champions the poor and downtrodden.

"Let us be the outgoing Church that Francis always wanted us to be, a restless Church that mobilizes," Buenos Aires's archbishop Jorge Garcia Cuerva told them.

Braving overnight rain and autumn chill, dozens set up tents in the city's famed Plaza de Mayo, where the funeral at the Vatican's St Peter's Square was broadcast on giant screens.

Images of the pope dotted the crowd, and mourners hung banners with some of his emblematic phrases: "Make a ruckus" and "Dream big."

An image of Francis with the inscription "pray for me" was projected onto a nearby obelisk.

Iara Amado, a 25-year-old social worker, said she wanted the vigil "to reclaim the pope's legacy, to transform the sadness left by his departure into a beacon of hope."

- 'Remember the poor' -

After mass in the cathedral where then Jorge Bergoglio was archbishop until 2013 before becoming pope, the faithful carried images of him around the square.

Bit by bit, the gathering took on a festival air, with the crowd singing, dancing and playing drums. Some wore carnival costumes as street vendors offered souvenirs featuring the pope's smiling face.

Spotted in the crowd was the flag of San Lorenzo, the Buenos Aires football club of which Bergoglio was a lifelong fan. The club paid tribute to the pontiff Saturday, unfurling a massive banner of its most famous supporter and placing a statue of him on the pitch, a San Lorenzo scarf tied around the neck.

"To think that they are sad in Rome," laughed Norma Brioso, 63, dancing to the sound of drums.

"Francisco is alive here among us... He would be happy to see us like this on the streets celebrating his life."

A funeral procession wound though neighborhoods of the Argentine capital including Plaza Constitucion, a gritty area of sex workers and homeless people, where Bergoglio had once declared: "You can do a lot, the most humble, the exploited, the poor and the excluded."

It stopped at a community center in Villa Zabaleta, where neighbors washed each other's feet, as Bergoglio once did there.

For many in perennially crisis-stricken Argentina, Pope Francis was not just a religious guide but a source of national pride.

His willingness to champion the poor, challenge governments and delight in everything -- dancing tango, playing football, sipping Argentina's beloved mate tea -- gave him popular appeal.

Francis never returned to his homeland after becoming pope.

T.Khatib--SF-PST