--- title: What to Know About Pope Francis’s Funeral Rites description: Pope Francis had previously revised and simplified the funeral rites that would be used upon his death canonical: https://time.com/7279127/pope-francis-funeral-rites-what-to-know/ author: Chantelle Lee article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-04-21T19:03:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2025-04-22T16:28:45.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: What to Know About Pope Francis’s Funeral Rites og:description: Pope Francis had previously revised and simplified the funeral rites that would be used upon his death og:url: https://time.com/7279127/pope-francis-funeral-rites-what-to-know/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3cb53258fdd1af32/6998c5ecd32e93e3d5cd6eee/Pope-Francis-Funeral.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Vatican Pool Images 2023 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What to Know About Pope Francis’s Funeral Rites twitter:description: Pope Francis had previously revised and simplified the funeral rites that would be used upon his death twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3cb53258fdd1af32/6998c5ecd32e93e3d5cd6eee/Pope-Francis-Funeral.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What to Know About Funeral Arrangements for Pope Francis > Sponsored content. 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Austen Ivereigh is a British writer and journalist known for his two biographies of Pope Francis, as well a bestselling book written in collaboration with him: Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future._ by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Updated: Apr 22, 2025 4:28 PM UTCPublished: Apr 21, 2025 7:03 PM UTC by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Updated: Apr 22, 2025 4:28 PM UTCPublished: Apr 21, 2025 7:03 PM UTC Pope Francis [died](https://time.com/5762436/pope-francis-dies-obituary/) on Monday at the age of 88, after a stroke, the Vatican said. His funeral will be held on Saturday, and, per tradition, there are a series of rituals that will take place over the next few days before he is buried. Francis had previously revised and simplified the funeral rites that would be used upon his death, according to [The Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/pope-funeral-rites-francis-vatican-d8b24d48b743e4b6b11f565196741504). Still, many of the rituals over the next several days will follow centuries-old tradition. On Monday, church leaders followed Catholic tradition in closing the pope's apartment at the Apostolic Palace by putting a red ribbon on the door handles and sealing the knot with wax, according to the [AP](https://apnews.com/live/pope-francis-dies-catholic-church-updates). Here’s what to know about the funeral rituals for Pope Francis. **Read More:** [_How a New Pope Is Chosen—and Who It Could Be_](https://time.com/7278963/new-pope-election-process-conclave-cardinals-candidates-francis-death-successor/) On Monday night, the camerlengo, who runs the Vatican after the death or resignation of the pope and before the election of the next pontiff, [oversaw](https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-04/pope-francis-death-ascertainment-cardinal-camerlengo-farrell.html#:~:text=Cardinal%20Camerlengo%20Kevin%20Farrell%20presides,of%20the%20Casa%20Santa%20Marta.) the rite of ascertainment of Francis’ death and the placement of his body in the coffin. The camerlengo is Cardinal Kevin Farrell. Doctors, other cardinals, and members of Francis’s family were present for the rite. Francis’s body will rest in his personal chapel until his coffin is [transferred](https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-04/pope-francis-ascertainment-death-cardinal-kevin-farrell.html) to St. Peter’s Basilica for public viewing on Wednesday. The camerlengo will lead the procession. As part of the reforms he made, Francis removed the requirement that the pope’s body be laid on an elevated bier for public viewing; instead, the pope’s body will be placed in a simple coffin facing the pews, according to [AP](https://apnews.com/live/pope-francis-dies-catholic-church-updates). [_Buy a copy of the Pope Francis cover here_](https://magazineshop.us/popefrancis) Francis will [lie in state](https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-04/pope-francis-funeral-saturday-novemdiales-lie-in-state.html) in St. Peter’s Basilica until his funeral, which is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. local time on Saturday in St. Peter’s Square. The Vatican [said](https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-04/pope-francis-funeral-saturday-novemdiales-lie-in-state.html) that the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, will preside over the ceremony. Francis’s revisions for the funeral rites permits burial outside the Vatican. The Vatican [announced](https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-04/pope-francis-funeral-saturday-novemdiales-lie-in-state.html) on Tuesday that Francis will be buried in St. Mary Major Basilica located in Rome; Francis previously said he wanted to be buried there, rather than in St. Peter’s Basilica or its grottoes, which is where most of the popes are buried, [AP](https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-funeral-burial-rites-rituals-2eb13a689d09d3403f08027081fe3753) reported. Nine days of official mourning, called the “Novemdiales,” will begin after the pope’s funeral. ## Transcript I think at the end of the Francis pontificate, we have a church that is much better able to show forth who God is and how God is a church that is better able to walk with people in the complex circumstances of their lives, never compromising on the truth, but understanding that we are all sinners, but we are all also welcome in the church, that there is room for all of us, and somehow we'll all find our way through it. My name is Austin Avery. I'm British and I'm a biographer of Pope Francis and a collaborator with him. We wrote a book together in 2020. Francis, I think, set out from the very beginning to to change the culture of the church, not to change its doctrine, not to change its laws, but to change the way the culture with which it operates. He was the first Latin American pope, the first pope to come from outside Europe, and the first Jesuit as well. So all these things are big firsts. In many ways, I think you can argue that he's the first pope of a new global age for the church. And I've said from the beginning of the pontificate that the basic direction that he has put the church in is the direction that the church will follow, I think, for the next generation. I think at the heart of Francis's achievements have been a whole series of of reforms in Rome, and which there was a clear mandate from the cardinals to do in finance in the way that the above all that the Vatican interacts with the rest of the church and bishops will now tell you that they're received in a whole different way now. In Rome, there's this new culture, if you like, of service. I think there's a the humility with which Francis always operated. He's left that mark on the church. There's there's there's no question the church is a humbler place. Talking about his teachings and his documents, we have, of course, the great example of Laudato Si, his teaching on care for creation. Fratelli tutti, he's called to fraternity. But also we have a morality which was the fruit of two synods on the family the joy of love, which is all about helping people to enter into relationships of commitment. You know, it's about marriage, but it's about not just about saying the church believes that marriage should be forever, but also helping people to live that commitment in a society where, of course, that's become harder and harder. He's opened up a whole new pastoral space for the church in walking with the divorced and remarried, and indeed those in what are sometimes called irregular relationships, relationships which don't conform to church's doctrine of marriage. And the same is true, I think, really, of people in same sex relationships or indeed other kinds of relationships. Francis broke important and significant new ground in the church's relationship with LGBT people. I think most of them would say that most of them would. Also, many of them would say, well, you know, he could have gone further. One of the most famous lines early on in the pontificate was the question. He said in reply to a journalist on the plane back from Rio de Janeiro, who asked not about homosexuality, but about a particular Vatican official who had had some gay scandal attached to them early on in their lives. And Francis said, who am I to judge? And Conservatives kind of went into uproar about this, saying, you know, he's the Pope. Of course he should judge. And homosexuality is church doctrine. He wasn't questioning church doctrine on homosexuality. He was simply saying what Jesus said, which is that we have no right to judge people. But it was a very, very important message that he gave also because he used the word gay. I think the first time the Pope has ever used the word gay, and that's really been his approach to to gay people. There's a critique of Francis that comes from, from more conservative sectors who think that he has undermined the church's commitment to the defence of doctrine faced with a skeptical liberal society. I think what they fail to understand is that Francis isn't interested in waging cultural battles. You know, he doesn't believe that the church should be a cultural warrior. And so I think a lot of the misunderstandings of him come from seeing him through this very, uh, particularly, I think, in the case of the United States, through the lens of the culture wars. And it just doesn't apply to him. You know, he's neither kind of left nor right in that sense. I think from the left, he's he's often been criticized for sort of not going far enough. You know, he talked he talks a good talk but ultimately doesn't deliver. But I think the misconception there is to believe that he is in some way a liberal or a progressive who was setting out from the beginning to change church doctrine. That was never Francis, as I argued from the beginning. I think Pope Francis's greatest legacy will be the transformation of the internal culture of the Catholic Church, that it is no longer enough to hand down doctrines and expect people to follow them, but rather a church that walks with people that understands them and their lives and the difficulties that they face. Evangelium, which means preach the gospel, is the name of the Constitution that he promulgated in Rome in 2022, which is the fruit of a many, many years of consultation which enshrines this culture of service, this idea that the the Vatican exists to serve the Pope, yes, but also to serve the local churches. And at the heart of the way that the Vatican needs to operate is, in fact, Synodality. Is this listening deeply to the other? And he called together this remarkable three year process, the biggest ever consultation in human history, uh, to instill this new culture in the church across the world. And I think this will be his great legacy. I think in the future, the church will become more synodal, more missionary, more pastoral, more merciful. So a church that is shows forth the mercy of God and particularly God's style, Jesus's own style of opening up spaces in which people can grow, and discernment to understand that actually the church sometimes needs to navigate difficult, complex situations and that, you know there isn't always a one size fits all answer to things. 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