�������t¶��

Michael D Higgins will be among world leaders and dignitaries to attend the funeral of Pope Francis this weekend, along with his wife, Sabina.

Even while lying on a hospital bed, the Francis attended to pontifical duties, preparing an Ash Wednesday homily that a cardinal read on his behalf at Rome’s Basilica of Saint Sabina and calling a parish priest in war-torn Gaza, where 135 Catholics congregate at the Holy Family Church.

Sabina Khatun was 10 years old when a crude bomb exploded in her hand in April 2020 in Jitpur, a village flanked by rice and jute fields in Murshidabad district.

"The moment I heard the explosion, I thought, who's going to be disabled this time? Has Sabina been maimed?," her mother, Ameena Bibi, says, her voice heavy with anguish.

"When I stepped outside, I saw people carrying Sabina in their arms. The flesh was visible from her hand."