[Trending News] How Pope Francis planned his funeral

A week hospitalized with a polymicrobial respiratory infection that later worsened for pneumonia, Pope Francis is prepared to leave. “I may not survive,” he said at Gemelli Hospital in Rome. Affected with bilateral pneumonia, the health state of the head of the Catholic Church, which is also asthmatic, alarmed the Catholic world.

Despite a “slight improvement” of the state of health, announced yesterday by the Vatican, “the laboratory analyzes and the Pope's thoracic ray continue to present a complex scenario,” says the information.

The Swiss Guard, dedicated to the Pope's protection, would even be conducting rehearsals of the funeral ceremony, the Swiss newspaper advanced Blick. But Swiss guard captain Christian Kuhne rushed to deny it: “We are working normally,” KNA's Catholic news agency told.

Solve loose

It is certain that Pope Francis has rushed decisions that will influence his succession. Days before being hospitalized, he decided to extend the term of the Cardinian College dean, 91 -year -old Giovanni Battista Re, postponing the election that should be held among the cardinals to appoint a new guardian. The dean will be responsible for holding the Conclave, the meeting of cardinals in which a new Pope is elected.

Also appointed, for the first time in the history of the Vatican, a woman to lead the Pontifical Commission for the State of Vatican City and the State Governor. ThereRmai Rafaella Petrini, who was the secretary-general, ascends to a position to be reserved for cardinals.

Funeral ceremonies

At 88 years old, and long before sick, Pope Francis also dealt with his own funeral. In 2017, asked the Department for the liturgical celebrations of the High Pontiff to simplify the rules of papal funeral ceremonies. The new version of The Roman Pontiff was presented in November 2024.

“The renewed rite should underline even more than the funeral of the Roman pontiff is that of a pastor and disciple of Christ and not that of a powerful man of this world,” explained the head of the Department for the liturgical celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, the Archbishop Diego Ravelli, Vatican News.

The funeral celebrations maintain the three stages of the papal funerals: the Pope's residence, St. Peter's Basilica and the place of the grave. But some changes were made. So far, when a Pope died death was declared in the deceased room. The new rules impose that it be done in the private chapel, with the body already deposed in a coffin.

The head of the Catholic Church will no longer be placed in the traditional three coffins: cypress, lead, and finally, of Carvalho. Now a single wooden coffin with zinc interior is determined. And swill be in this coffin that the deceased will be transferred to the St. Peter's Basilica. Here, the body will no longer be exposed on an altar for the veneration of the faithful, but in the coffin with the lid removed. An important detail: the papal staff, symbol of the power of the high pontiff, will not be placed by the coffin, as it was here.

Pope Francis has also decided where he wants to be buried. And this is not where most popes are buried in the Basilica of St. Peter. The Argentine Pope chose the Basilica of Santa Maria Maior, in Rome, due to his special devotion by the Nossa Senhora das Neves icon: when he was elected on March 14, 2013, it was there that he went to pray and returned before and after every apostolic trip.

“We simply simplified the ceremonies. We had to do it!”, Pope Francis told Mexican television in 2017. “And I will be the first to play him,” he said at the time.

Related articles