Vatican City (AFP) – The funeral of Pope Francis, who died on Monday aged 88, will take place Saturday. After a multi-lingual mass in St Peter’s Square, his coffin will be taken to the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica, in central Rome, for burial.
Here is the official programme of the ceremonies:
05:30 (0330 GMT) St Peter’s Square opens.
09:30 (0730 GMT) US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania arrive in St Peter’s Square.
10:00 (0800 GMT) The funeral mass presided over by the Italian Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the College of Cardinals, begins. Francis’s wooden and zinc coffin, sealed on Friday evening, will be placed in front of the basilica before a temporary raised altar. To its left, facing St Peter’s, will sit the red-robed cardinals. To the right, official delegations from around the world, seated in alphabetical order.
The ceremony should last about 90 minutes, with 224 cardinals and 750 priests and bishops in attendance. It will feature, in chronological order:
– Reading of liturgical texts
– A homily by cardinal Re
– A universal prayer in several languages
– The consecration of the bread and wine
– Participants exchanging a sign of peace or handshake
– The Eucharist
– A moment of silence
– The celebrant sprinkling holy water on the pope
At the end of the mass, the coffin will be brought inside St Peter’s Basilica.
ABOUT 11:30 am (0930 GMT) The coffin leaves for Santa Maria Maggiore, the Rome basilica where Francis will be buried. It will not be possible for mourners to follow the funeral procession, but members of the public will be able to watch it pass by from behind metal barriers set along the route. The hearse will cover about four kilometres driving at a slow pace through the streets of Rome. The transfer should take about 30 minutes.
The key points in the route are:
– Porta del Perugino (a western gate out of Vatican City)
– Crossing the River Tiber
– Corso Vittorio Emanuele
– Piazza Venezia
– Via dei Fori Imperiali
– Colosseum
– Via Labicana
– Via Merulana
ABOUT 12:00 (1000 GMT) The coffin arrives at Santa Maria Maggiore, where it will be welcomed by a group of the “poor and needy.” The burial, presided over by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who as camerlengo is running the Vatican’s day-to-day affairs until a new pope is elected, will take place in private.
12:50 (1050 GMT) Donald Trump leaves St Peter’s Square and heads for Rome’s Fiumicino airport to catch his flight back to the United States.
© 2024 AFP
