The Last Mass Mass Mass for Pope Benedict XVI and His Remnant in Liguria (Tircus de Ponte)
Other Christian clergy are also in attendance. The pope’s funeral service was a traditional Catholic ceremony with a sermon detailing the pope’s life, but it was scaled down at Francis’ request.
The pope cared for the poor so a group of poor people will pay their respects on the steps leading to St. Mary Major.
The last funeral ceremony for a sitting pope — Pope John Paul II in 2005 — was three hours long, and one of the largest gatherings of statesmen in the world. Pope Benedict XVI was buried in January of 2023 after he resigned a decade before.
The body of the pope is no longer in three coffins made of cypress, lead and oak, but in a wooden coffin with a zinc lid. While lying in state, the coffin was placed not on an elevated bier, but facing the pews.
Francis asked his tomb to be simple, without any decoration and with the sole inscription: Franciscus, in his will. The Vatican says the tomb was made with marble from the Liguria region of Italy, the land of Francis’s grandparents.
The funeral mass of Giovanni Battista Re: an Italian Cardinal who died of a stroke and heart failure, and his role in rescuing the dead
The pope will be elected soon by the Roman Catholic cardinals. The conclave must begin 15 to 20 days after the death of the pope, which would put its start date sometime between May 6 and May 11.
An Italian cardinal, Giovanni Battista Re, presided over the funeral mass, predominantly speaking in Latin, but with prayers conducted in Polish, Chinese, Arabic and Portuguese too. Cardinal Re will be in charge of the next pope’s conclave when he becomes the dean of the College ofCardinals.
A priest will carry a cross in a funeral procession on Saturday, the New York Times reports. A book of Gospels will be placed on top of the coffin after it is set down in the square.
The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be at the funeral, according to Russian media reports. Putin is under an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court in connection with alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
Other world leaders who will be in attendance include: Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations; Ursula Von der Leyen, President of the European Union Commission; and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of the Ukrainian President’s Office.
Francis’ funeral comes six days after Francis died of a stroke and heart failure at age 88, and after tens of thousands of people paid their respects as he lay in state at St. Peter’s Basilica.
The coffin containing the body of the 88-year-old man will be buried in a church more than two miles away after he died from heart failure and a stroke.
It’s not the only way Francis’ funeral is breaking with tradition: He used his authority to simplify burial rites for future popes and left specific instructions to pare down his own.
Viewers can watch a livestream of the ceremony on the Vatican News’s YouTube channel. The Vatican says it will provide live coverage of the funeral and procession to St. Mary Majors, but will stop before the burial in the Basilica.
Many major broadcasters in the U.S. and around the world will also be covering and streaming the funeral live, including NBC and Peacock, CBS and Paramount+ and ABC News, Disney+ and Hulu.
The Novemdiales of the Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the Dean of the College which selects the pope
The church says that Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the college which selects the pope, will preside over the mass.
Argentina’s president Javier Milei is attending the funeral mass too, as will the president and prime minister of Ireland, the presidents of Poland and Brazil, the outgoing chancellor of Germany, the King of Spain, and Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Vatican has said the public can begin visiting his tomb starting Sunday, and announced that dozens of cardinals will also do so on Sunday afternoon. There is a period of mourning known as the Novemdiales, which begins on October 27 and lasts nine days.
President Donald Trump stood with the Bidens during a mass at the U.N. on the first day of his foreign trip.
Crowds of mourners and many world leaders attended the funeral mass for the pope in St. Peter’s Square.