In life, Francis bore the weight of the war — particularly repatriating the 19,000 Ukrainian kids who have been deported to Russia, according to Joe Donnelly, the most recent U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, who spoke with Playbook today from Rome, where he had just attended the funeral.

The president got a front-row seat to Pope Francis’s funeral Saturday. But that particular seat wasn’t the one that mattered most.