The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis’s funeral will be held on Saturday (April 26) and released images of the pontiff lying in a simple wooden open casket in the chapel of the Santa Marta guesthouse as well as his last words.
The images show Cardinal Kevin Farrell presiding over the rite of certification of death of the pope Francis following his death at the age of 88 from a stroke and heart failure on Monday (April 21).
In his last words Pope Francis’s is reported to have expressed gratitude to his aides who facilitated his final appearance in Saint Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday, saying “Thank you for taking me into the square.”
The funeral mass will begin at 10am CET (1am PT) and take place on the parvis of Saint Peter’s Basilica, or the space in front of the basilica.
Pope Francis’s coffin will be transferred from the chapel of the Santa Marta guesthouse to Saint Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday morning (April 23), where it will be placed by the main alter for the public to visit and pay their final respects.
Queues are already forming in Saint Peter’s Square. When Pope Francis’s retired predecessor Pope Benedict XVI died on December 31, 2022, some 35,000 people a day filed past his coffin.
Given that Pope Francis was still in office at the time of his death and that Rome is already full of Catholic pilgrims to celebrate the 2025 Jubilee Year, numbers are expected to be even higher over the coming days.
Hundreds of TV news crews have also joined the crowds in St Peter’s Square, with their numbers set to swell even further in the lead up to Saturday.
Vatican Media will be running a multi-camera live signal of the funeral but news agencies and networks are also setting up on balconies and terraces overlooking St Peter’s Square, many of which were secured by monthly retainers years ago for substantial amounts of money.
The funeral liturgy will be presided over by Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who is the Dean of the College of Cardinals.
At the end of funeral ceremony, Pope Francis’ coffin will be taken into Saint Peter’s Basilica and from there to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major (Santa Maria Maggiore) for burial.
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend the open-air ceremony and line the streets of Rome as the coffin is transferred across the city. The entire ceremony is expected to last around three to four hours.
Heads of state and other dignitaries already confirmed to attend include U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prince William, who is standing in for his father King Charles, who met with Pope Francis in Rome just days before his death.
The Basilica of Saint Mary Major is one of four major papal basilicas, but Pope Francis has broken with tradition in his request to be laid to rest there, rather than in one of the crypts of St Peter’s Basilica inside the Vatican City.
The start date for Conclave at which 135 cardinals from across the world will vote on the next pope has yet to be announced.
Traditionally, it begins 15 to 20 days after the death of the last pope, but this timeframe was conditioned by the length of time it would take cardinals to get to Rome prior to widespread air travel.
There are suggestions that the process which takes place in absolute secrecy in the Sistine Chapel could be brought forward if all 135 cardinals gather in Rome before the 15-day deadline.
Frontrunners to become the next pope include Italy’s Pietro Parolin, the Philippines’ Luis Antonio Tagle, Ghana’s Peter Turkson and Portugal’s José Tolentino Calaça de Mendonça and for the U.S., Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan and Cardinal Robert Prevost, who is already in Rome after a stin in Latin America.
