Francis arrived at the end to gave the final blessing in Latin over the dark brown wooden coffin on the floor. The coffin was incensed and sprinkled with holy water.

Re's words were less a homily than a biography of Pell, 81, who died on Tuesday night in a Rome hospital of heart failure during hip replacement surgery. Re mentioned that Pell had spent more than a year in jail before being acquitted of sexual abuse allegations in his native Australia in 2020.

SNAP, an advocacy group for victims of clergy sexual abuse, in a statement had called on the Vatican to show "restraint" in funeral arrangements "unless the Church hierarchy wants to deepen already deep wounds".

Last year, Italian journalist Sandro Magister, who has a long track record of receiving leaked Vatican documents, published an anonymous memo circulating in the Vatican condemning Pope Francis' papacy as a "catastrophe".

The day after Pell died, Magister disclosed on his widely read blog Settimo Cielo (Seventh Heaven) that it was Pell who wrote the memo and gave him permission to publish it under the pseudonym "Demos" - Greek for populace. It included what the author said should be the qualities of the next pope.

Father Joseph Hamilton, Pell's personal secretary, declined to comment on Magister's report and Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said it had no comment.

Hamilton told Reuters after the funeral that Pell's body will be flown to Australia early next week to be buried in the crypt at St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney, where he served as archbishop.