Guide to following the Pope's funeral: This is how Francis will be buried.

BarcelonaThe world says goodbye this Saturday to the Pope who tried to modernize the Catholic ChurchBefore his death, Francis arranged for his burial to be as close as possible to his idea of living his faith: humble and austere. Despite the Vatican's opulent symbolism, the ceremony will have a place reserved for the poor and migrants, and the funeral will be simpler than those of his predecessors, with a wooden and zinc coffin instead of the traditional three coffins, and only the inscription. Franciscus, his papal name in Latin, on the tombstone.

The calendar

April 21st

Announcement of deathCardinal Camerlengo Kevin Joseph Farrell verified and made official Francis's death on Monday morning.

Your vacancy. A transition period begins in which Farrell provisionally leads the institution.

April 23

Funeral transfer. Following the wake at the Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis's residence, the coffin will be transferred this Wednesday to St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

April 23-25

Funeral homeFrancis's body is displayed before the faithful and authorities in St. Peter's Basilica.

April 26

FuneralIt will be held on Saturday morning in St. Peter's Basilica itself.

GraveFrancis will be buried in a crypt of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, in central Rome.

April 27

Visits. The day after the burial, it will be possible to visit the grave.

The farewell ceremony

After three days of funeral, during which more than 250,000 faithful attended St. Peter's Basilica to pay their last respects, the coffin was closed on Friday evening. The Funeral Mass will begin this Saturday at 10 a.m. Rome time in St. Peter's Square, and will be celebrated by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Dean of the College of Cardinals.

After the singing of the Kyrie, the cardinal will read: "God, eternal shepherd of souls, turns his gaze upon the people who implore him and grants his servant, Pope Francis, who has presided over his Church in charity, that he may share with the flock entrusted to him the reward promised to the faithful of the Gospel." In fact, the Vatican has made public the prayer booklet it will use during the burial.

After the ceremony, which will be attended by several delegations of authorities, the coffin will be transferred to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, outside the Vatican walls, where he will be buried according to his expressed wishes during his lifetime. The tomb will be located in the niche of the side nave between the Pauline Chapel (or Chapel of the Salus Populi Romani) and the Sforza Chapel, and can be visited from the day after the ceremony, on April 27. Seven other popes are buried in this church, although it has not been for more than a century.

All the Funeral expenses have been covered by an anonymous donor, as stipulated by the pontiff himself in his will, dated June 29, 2022. But the exact cost of the funeral has not yet been revealed.

Once the funeral rites are completed, the nine days of mourning will begin, during which novena masses will be celebrated, and a funeral must also be called. the conclave, the meeting of the cardinals in the Sistine Chapel to elect a successor, before May 11.

The most prominent faces

130 delegations with at least fifty heads of state and government will attend the funeral of the Argentine pontiff. Among them will be US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be there, as he has sent his Minister of Culture. In the front row will be the Argentine government delegation, led by Javier Milei, representing Francis's nationality, who was Argentine, and the Italian authorities, headed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. They will then be members of the royal families, followed by representatives of the governments of the other nations in order of importance and alphabetically in French. Some of the most prominent figures who will gather at this world summit of international leaders They are:

• Delegation of the Spanish Government: First Vice President María Jesús Montero; Second Vice President Yolanda Díaz; Minister of the Presidency and Justice Félix Bolaños; and Leader of the Opposition Alberto Núñez Feijóo
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
• The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen
• French President Emmanuel Macron
• US President Donald Trump
• Former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
• The President of Argentina, Javier Milei
• Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
• Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova
• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
• United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres
• The Spanish monarchs, Felipe and Letizia
• Prince William of Wales

The coffin

The pontiff's reforming attitude is also reflected in the changes he introduced in the funeral ritual. modify various elements of the burial In the official document of the Holy See that governs the funerals of popes, theOrdo exsequiarum romani pontificalsHe will be buried in a single wooden coffin with a zinc interior, instead of the traditional three coffins of cypress, lead, and oak. Furthermore, the grave will be in the ground, and the tombstone, made of Ligurian marble—the region of his maternal grandparents—will bear a single inscription: Franciscus.

Route

Once the funeral Mass is over, the Pope's remains will be transported by vehicle at a walking pace, allowing parishioners to follow. A group of 40 people, made up of marginalized groups (the poor, migrants, and the homeless), will participate in the procession. The route will partially follow the ancient Via Papalis, the procession that popes once made after being designated between St. Peter's in the Vatican and the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome.

In the Basilica of St. Mary Major, the ceremony will be intimate and behind closed doors. The tomb will be placed in the niche between the Pauline Chapel, which houses the Virgin Mary Salus Populi Romani, and that of the Sforza family. The following day, it will be opened to the faithful who wish to visit.

Safety device

Italian authorities, who estimate that some 200,000 people will attend the funeral, have planned a significant security operation to deal with the large crowd and the high risk that the gathering of so many world leaders entails. Several snipers, more than 2,000 police officers, and 400 traffic wardens have been deployed in the area. The immediate area around Piazza Sant'Pere and the Vatican will be closed to traffic. Civil Protection will deploy 3,000 volunteers and there will be 55 medical teams, 11 advanced medical centers, and 52 ambulances.

In addition, the airspace over the Vatican and much of Rome will be closed, and police will deploy drones to fly over Piazza Sant'Pere to detect potential threats from the air. They are also periodically inspecting the underground. Call jammers will be installed at certain points in the Vatican to prevent the activation of any explosive devices. Due to the risk of unauthorized drones taking off, anti-drone bazookas will be deployed, which can use waves to deter these devices.