How to watch the funeral of Pope Francis
The Last Funeral of a Sitting Pope – Pope John Paul II in January 2023, and his Remembrance at the Cemetery in Liguria, Italy
The Swiss Guards will kneel for the consecration of the host, which will be the pope, NBC News reported. It isn’t technically a funeral, but there will be a sermon about the pope’s life.
The poor and needy will stand on the stairs of Santa Maria Maggiore’s Basilica to honor Francis at his final resting place, reflecting his focus on society’s most vulnerable.
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. The most recent papal funeral was for Pope Benedict XVI in January 2023, a decade after he resigned from the position.
Pope Francis’ body was placed in a wooden coffin instead of the three cypress, lead and oak coffins it had been traditionally placed in. The coffin was placed facing the pews, not on an elevated bier.
The pope should be buried like any other Christian, but with dignity, because the bishop of Rome is not a powerful man of this world, Francis said in an autobiographical book. The marble for his tomb will be quarried in the northwest Italian region of Liguria, where the grandparents of Francis – born Mario Bergoglio – had emigrated to Argentina.
The Burial Mass of Giovanni Battista Re and the Mass Mass of St. Peter’s Basilica to St. Mary Majors
The new pope will be elected soon. After the death of the pope, a conclave must start 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. The dean of the College of Cards, Cardinal Re, will be in charge of the conclave to choose the next pope at some point in the second week of May.
On Saturday morning the funeral will begin with a procession, led by a priest carrying a cross, the New York Times reports. After the coffin has been set down in the square, a book of the Gospels will be placed on top of it.
The Russian media said that Putin wasn’t going to attend. He faces arrest if he lands in Italy, thanks to a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in connection with alleged war crimes inside Ukraine.
There are other world leaders who plan to be there, including the UN secretary-general, the EU commission president, the president of Argentina and the Brazilian president.
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 pope’s body will be moved to the Basilica of St. Mary Major after the mass at St. Peter’s Basilica.
The funeral is breaking with tradition in a number of ways, including how Francis used his authority to simplify burial rituals for future popes and give specific instructions to reduce 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 Masses of the Novemdiales in the Memory of Cardinal Battista Re: The Italian Cardinal’s Last Remnant
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re is the dean of the College ofCardinals, which will meet soon to choose the next pope.
The president of Argentina and the prime minister of Ireland are amongst those attending the funeral mass.
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. For the following nine days, a period of mourning with daily masses will be observed, known by its Latin name as the “Novemdiales.”
For President Trump, it is the first foreign trip of his second term in office, and during the morning’s mass he stood with former President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and dozens of others.
Tens of thousands of mourners and dozens of world leaders have gathered in Rome to celebrate the life of the late pope, Francis, at a funeral mass held in the Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Square.
