Pope Francis’s funeral will be on April 26 at 10 a.m. local time, 4 a.m. ET, at St. Peter’s Basilica, followed by his burial in the Basilica of St. Mary Major.
At around 8 p.m. local time on April 25, Pope Francis’s coffin was sealed, after three days during which more than 100,000 mourners stood in line to pay their respects in St. Peter’s Basilica.
The deceased Catholic pontiff’s coffin was closed in a special rite led by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Catholic Church’s Camerlengo—or Chamberlain—as part of preparations for the late pontiff’s funeral on April 26.
Pope Francis’s Funeral and Burial Schedule
Francis’s funeral will be held on Saturday, April 26, at 10 a.m. local time, 4 a.m. ET, on the parvis, the platformed area and steps just outside St. Peter’s Basilica.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, will preside over the funeral Mass, with other cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops possibly assisting.
Viewers should expect the event to last well over the normal length of a Catholic Mass, which is usually about an hour.
Pope Benedict XVI’s funeral in 2022 lasted around two hours, and the funeral for Pope St. John Paul II in 2005 lasted more than 2 1/2 hours.
The Mass will include an entrance procession of the cardinals, readings from the Bible, a homily, and the liturgy of the Eucharist, followed by the Ultimo Commendation and Valedictio—the funeral rite’s concluding prayer and farewell, formally entrusting the deceased to God.
Following the Mass, Francis’s body will be transported to the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major, where a tomb between the Pauline Chapel and the Sforza Chapel, close to the Altar of St. Francis, has been prepared to receive him.
The burial rite will be presided over by Farrell, along with several other officials who are required to take part in the celebration. Those others include Re, along with Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, the archpriest of the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, former Vatican secretary of state, and Cardinal Baldassare Reina, vicar general for the Diocese of Rome.
By T.J. Muscaro
