The funeral of Pope Francis will be held this Saturday in the Plaza de San Pedro, confirmed the Vatican, in what is expected to be a solemn ceremony but marked by the austere tone that his papacy characterized. World leaders such as Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer, Donald Trump, Javier Milei and Prince William have confirmed their assistance, while Rome prepares to say goodbye to the pontiff who changed the formshe reformed the rules and, faithful to his style, chose a final break away from the traditional Vatican protocol.
Francisco, who headed the Catholic Church for twelve years, and guided its 1.4 billion faithful along a more inclusive and socially committed path, died Monday at age 88, after suffering a stroke. I had been recovering for a bilateral pneumonia that had kept him hospitalized at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome. According to the official certificate released by the Vatican, the stroke caused an irreversible heart failure. He died at his Vatican residence, in the Santa Marta house, at 7.35 in the morning, after having fallen into a coma just two hours before. His doctors said he did not suffer.
A funeral in Franciscan code
The funeral mass will be chaired by Cardinal Giovanni Battista ReDean of the Cardenalicio College, at 10 in the morning local time. From Wednesday, the Pope’s body will be transferred to the Basilica of San Pedro, where he will remain until Friday night so that the faithful can pay tribute. The Vatican has published images of Francisco dressed with his papal ornaments and holding a rosary, lying on an open coffin inside the chapel of his residence.
In life, Francisco left clear instructions on his funeral and burial. He wanted to break the tradition that reserves the Pontiffs a place in the Grutas under the Basilica of San Pedro. Instead, he asked to be buried in the basilica of Santa María la Mayorlocated in the Roman neighborhood of Esquilino, one of the oldest in the Italian capital. “On Earth, without particular ornaments,” he wrote in his will, leaving only Latin registration: Franciscus. The cost of the funeral will be covered with funds donated by a benefactor, as he also left.
This change of place and form is not less: it represents a symbolic break with the pomp of the Vatican and reaffirms its will to close to the people. In April 2024, Francisco had already approved new rules to simplify papal funerals. Thus, your body will not be placed in three coffins (of cypress, lead and elm) or exposed on a platform. Instead, it will be buried in a simple wooden coffin lined in zinc.
A global farewell and a political message
The funeral will bring together heads of state of all latitudes, even those who in life maintained tensions with Francisco. The former US president Donald Trumpwho had repeated clashes with the Pope for his positions on migration and poverty, announced that he will attend with his wife Melania: “We hope to be there!”, He wrote on his social truth network. The president of Ukraine will also be present, Volodimir Zelenskiaccompanied by his wife Orena Zelenska.
In contrast, Russian President Vladimir Putin – over who weighs an arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court – will not attend. His absence was confirmed from the Kremlin. Who will be is Javier Milei, president of Francisco’s native Argentina. Although his relationship was distant in the political, Milei praised the “goodness and wisdom” of the Pontiff after his death.
From Europe, the president of the European Commission will attend, Ursula von der Leyenand the president of the European Council, António Costa. The United Kingdom will send Prince William on behalf of King Carlos III, who along with Queen Camila visited the Pope during an official tour weeks ago. King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain will also be present. Felipe described him as “an ethical lighthouse of our time.”
A pontiff that knew how to approach
Francisco was a unique Pope. Near, accessible, oblivious to the rigid forms of the curia. He used the subway in Buenos Aires, washed the feet of prisoners on Holy Thursday, and turned the Vatican into a relevant political actor on migration, inequality and environment. His leadership, although resisted by conservative sectors within the Vatican, managed to expand the margins of the debate within the Church.
In his last days, with his very deteriorated health, he made some limited public appearances. At the end of March he visited the Basilica of San Pedro to thank the restorers of the sepulcher of Pope Urban VIII. In Easter, still weakened, he came out in the papamobile and blessed the faithful from the central balcony.
His death is expected to accentuate the internal dispute between progressive and conservative sectors of the Vatican. The conclave to choose your successor must begin between 15 and 20 days after their death, according to canonical norms. The legacy he leaves is deep, but also polarizing: for many, he was a Pope of the people; For others, a reformist who tension the limits of tradition.
The farewell of a symbol
With his last decision – being buried away from the fasto, in a Marian Basilica in the center of Rome – Francisco wanted to leave a last teaching. Its funeral will not be a power show, but a spiritual will. In times of political and religious fracture, his option for humility becomes, also, a form of resistance.
While Cardinals, presidents and anonymous citizens accompany their farewell, what remains is the footprint of a papacy who sought to speak to the contemporary world with gestures more than with decrees. Your final silence, perhaps, say as much as your preaching: that the Church, to remain relevant, must begin by listening.
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