The death of Pope Francis on Monday has set in process a complicated but time-tested procedure for mourning the pontiff and for choosing his successor.
Here is what is expected to happen next.
Upon Death:
Time-honoured rituals have been drafted and refined over the centuries to ensure secrecy and an orderly transition. The carefully choreographed pageantry provides order to the Catholic Church in its most dramatic moment of flux.
The Vatican announced Francis had died at 7.35am local time on Monday. A pope’s death is confirmed by the head of the Vatican’s health department and the cardinal chamberlain, or camerlengo in Italian, of the Holy Roman Church, who becomes the Vatican’s de facto administrator.
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The pope’s body is dressed in a white cassock and brought to the pope’s private chapel.
The camerlengo and other officials, along with members of the pontiff’s family, congregate in the chapel for a ceremony. The body is placed in a coffin made of wood and lined with zinc. The pope is dressed in red, his mitre and pallium placed next to him.
After the ceremony, the camerlengo drafts a document authenticating the pope’s death, affixing the doctor’s report. He secures the pontiff’s private papers and seals his residence, and arranges for the destruction of the so-called fisherman’s ring, used by the pope to seal documents, to prevent forgeries.
Paying Respects:
During his tenure, Francis rejected elaborate outfits and ornate papal apartments and his plans kept that up to the end, scaling back some of the funerary pomp and ceremony.
In rewriting the funeral rites last year, Francis simplified several elements. Since the 13th century, deceased popes have gone on public view, their embalmed bodies placed on a raised pedestal. When John Paul II died in 2005, his body was brought to the Apostolic Palace within hours for a private viewing for cardinals, bishops and other members of the church hierarchy, as well as prominent Italian officials.
Francis did away with that sort of viewing. Instead, a public viewing will take place in St Peter’s Basilica, where thousands have thronged to pay respects to popes in the past. His body will remain in the coffin, which will not be on a raised pedestal.
“Francis decided to highlight humility over glorification,” said Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, a church historian.
The College of Cardinals decides on the day and hour that the pope’s body will be brought to St Peter’s Basilica and on when the viewing will commence.
The funeral:
The funeral and burial of the pope are supposed to take place four to six days after his death, and funeral rites in various churches in Rome will last nine days.
Past popes were put in three nested coffins, one of cypress, one of zinc and one of elm. But as part of Francis’s rule change, he decreed that he would be buried in a single coffin, made of wood and lined in zinc.
The coffin is closed the night before the funeral. The pope’s face is covered by a white silk veil and he is buried with a bag containing coins minted during his papacy and a canister with a “rogito” or deed, briefly listing details of his life and papacy. The rogito is read aloud before the coffin is closed.
The new rules also allow for a pope to be buried in a church other than St Peter’s Basilica. Francis has asked to be buried instead in the Basilica of St Mary Major, a church he often visited to pray in front of an icon of the Virgin Mary.
The conclave:
Within 15 to 20 days of the pope’s death, Dean of the College of Cardinals Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re (91) will summon the cardinals to Rome for what is known as a conclave to elect Francis’s successor.
The period between the death of a pope and election of another is called the sede vacante, or “the seat is vacant”. During that time, the College of Cardinals keeps general oversight of the church, but it is barred from making any big decisions.
The cardinals gather in the Sistine Chapel. All cardinal electors must swear an oath of secrecy and vote by secret ballot. Only cardinals younger than 80 are eligible to vote. A two-thirds majority is needed to elect a pope and politicking is part of the process.
The white smoke:
The cardinals cast repeated votes until a two-thirds majority emerges. After every vote, the ballot papers are burned in a stove, along with an additive that produces a colour. The smoke is released through a chimney visible from St Peter’s Square, where crowds typically gather to watch and wait. If a vote ends without a two-thirds majority, the smoke is black.
When a decision is reached, the smoke is white.
Inside the Vatican, the dean of the college asks the chosen successor whether he accepts the role. After getting the presumed yes, the dean then asks him for the name he wishes to be called as pope.
In the sacristy of the chapel, the new pontiff is dressed in a white cassock. After greeting the cardinals, he proceeds to a balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, where a senior cardinal proclaims, in Latin, “Habemus papam” or “We have a pope”.
This article originally appeared in the New York Times.
