Lavelle’s high school, Mount Notre Dame, spent the days before the final excitedly cheering her on via Twitter.

The interim director of the Vatican Press Office said the move was an "extraordinary gesture" that underlined the diplomat's desire to fully cooperate with French authorities.

According to the Vatican, an estimated 250 migrants, refugees and rescue volunteers attended the Mass, which was celebrated at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter's Basilica.

The commission will be chaired by Harvard Law School professor Mary Ann Glendon.

Family, friends and hundreds of service members in uniform remembered the heroism and self-sacrifice of Luis Alvarez during an emotional funeral Mass.

After 61 minutes, just as emergency room personnel were about to pronounce him dead, James Fulton Engstrom began to breathe and his heart rate shot up to a normal level for a newborn.