Main Points
- Pope Francis died on Monday aged 88 of a stroke and heart failure, Vatican doctors said.
- His remains are to be transferred to St Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday morning to allow for mourners to pay their respects.
- The pope’s funeral will take place on Saturday at St Peter’s Basilica at 9am Irish time (10am local time).
- The conclave to choose a new pope will begin in early May; there is no clear front-runner.
- Ireland will be represented at the funeral by President Michael D Higgins, Sabina Higgins, Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris
Key reads:
- Obituary: Outsider pope who championed those at the margins
- Tom Hennigan: Why the Pope never returned to Argentina
- Opinion - Brendan Hoban: Whoever succeeds Pope Francis, the genie is now permanently out of the bottle
- The ‘Papabiles’: Six men who could become the next pope
That’s the end of our live coverage for this evening, but you can follow the latest news following the death of Pope Francis, and extensive analysis of his legacy, on irishtimes.com in the coming days.
Flags will be flown at half-mast over public buildings on Saturday to mark the funeral of Pope Francis, Jack Horgan-Jones writes.
With preparations under way in the Vatican for the first funeral of a serving pontiff for 20 years, Ireland is to be represented at the event by President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina Higgins, as well as both Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris.
An incorporeal Cabinet meeting is expected to be held this week as, under the Constitution, a President is not permitted to leave the State during their term of office, except with the consent of the Government.
The degree of commemoration and memorialisation by the Government and the State appears to fall somewhat short of the last funeral of a sitting pope, that of John Paul II in 2005.
Then taoiseach Bertie Ahern initially signalled that there would be no official period of mourning, but following public pressure, he said the Government would observe such a period.
Pope John Paul II’s funeral was held on a Friday, and schools were given the option of closing, while civil and public service employees were to be facilitated where possible to have some time off to attend services. Private companies were asked to make similar arrangements for their workers.
The Government did not respond to a query on whether similar arrangements would be put in place or sought for those working this Saturday.
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín, who welcomed the decision to fly flags at half-mast over public buildings, said there should be an official period of mourning, pointing to steps taken in Spain, Cuba and India in the wake of Pope Francis’s death.
“We are a pluralist republic and that’s a good thing, but the vast majority of Irish people identify as Catholic,” he said.
However, other parties of the Opposition disagreed. Labour TD Duncan Smith said it was appropriate for the President or head of government to attend the funeral and for the State to be represented at any celebration of the pope’s life organised by the Catholic Church in Ireland. “We don’t believe there should be an official State day (or) period of mourning,” Mr Smith said.
A spokesman for People Before Profit said the party has sympathy and respect for those mourning and marking the death of the pope.
“However, People Before Profit advocate for a secular society with complete separation of church and State. National mourning (or) State measures would undermine separation of church and State and would therefore not be something we advocate for,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the Social Democrats said Catholics were mourning a man who led their church “with humility and compassion”.
She added: “Given the significance of the event, it is appropriate that the President, Taoiseach and Tánaiste represent the country and the funeral on Saturday.”
Sinn Féin did not respond to queries on whether there should be an official period of mourning, nor on whether its leader Mary Lou McDonald would attend the funeral in Rome on Saturday if invited.
The then leader of the opposition, Fine Gael’s Enda Kenny, attended the funeral of John Paul II in 2005.
A Government spokeswoman confirmed that the Department of the Taoiseach had requested that the national flag be flown at half-mast on Monday, the day of Pope Francis’s death.
“A similar request will be made for Saturday, April 26th for the funeral of the late Pope Francis,” she said.
The mood in St Peter’s Square in the Vatican was one of sad resignation on Tuesday as preparations began for the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday, writes Patsy McGarry.
What had been expected to happen had happened, but it was still a surprise. As Betty Leahy from Killeagh in Co Cork said, it was “very sad to hear he is dead but I think everybody was kind of half expecting it”.
She and her three sons were on a family break on their first visit to Rome. The death of Pope Francis was “a surprise. We knew he was not well but didn’t expect it to happen when we were here”, she said. “It’s a very special time to be here and an honour at this time. He was a very good man and seemed to be very honourable.”
It was also a first time in Rome for Steven and Danielle Moronhi, from Melbourne, Australia. Both are Catholic. “We had every intention of visiting the Vatican on this day [Tuesday], but without knowing what was happening yesterday,” he said.
They saw “so many people come, more than we expected, to pay their respects”.
Pope Francis, Steven said, “established a change in behaviour of what had been the guardrails of Catholicism for a long, long time”.
He felt this aligns “more with how the new generations think”.
Hannah, who was present with her four children, is from north Wales. All Catholics too, it was again coincidental that they were in Rome at the moment. She said Francis didn’t have a huge impact on her life.
“He could, perhaps, have made more changes. For women, homosexuality, female priests in the church. I think he made good headway in other aspects of the Church.”
Newly-weds Guilherme and Giovanna Markese are from São Paulo in Brazil. “We just got married, two days ago,” said Guilherme. He works for pharmaceutical company Merck, and Giovanna with Amazon. They married in São Paulo “and then came here [to Rome] last Friday on honeymoon”.
The death of Pope Francis was “very surprising because we were planning to come here [to the Vatican] on the day that the Pope died”. They are not Catholic. “No, we are Christians, Baptists, but we have a lot of friends who are Catholic.”
They knew “a little bit” about Pope Francis. “I think he was very kind with the followers and also with the people around the world. He was very revolutionary, progressive,” said Guilherme.
Giovanna thought the late pope “had a really good sense of humanity, kind, he had a big heart”.
And Guilherme was clear, it did not matter that Francis was Argentinian. “It didn’t matter to us. We are Brazilians and kind of rivals,” he said. “When we are talking about religion, this type of rivalry drops off.”
The Prince of Wales and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have confirmed they will attend the funeral of Pope Francis this weekend.
Heir to the throne William, a future head of the Church of England, will attend on behalf of the King, Kensington Palace said.
Keir Starmer will join other leaders including US President Donald Trump, who had already said on social media that he and his wife Melania plan to attend the funeral.
The Israeli government shared and then deleted a social media post offering condolences over the death of Pope Francis, without saying why, though an Israeli newspaper linked the decision to the late pontiff’s criticism of the war in Gaza, Reuters reported on Tuesday evening.
The verified @Israel account had posted on Monday a message on social media platform X that read: “Rest in Peace, Pope Francis. May his memory be a blessing”, alongside an image of the pope visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem Post quoted officials at the foreign ministry as saying that the pope had made “statements against Israel” and that the social media post had been published in “error”.
The foreign ministry, which social media platform X states on its website is linked to the verified @Israel account, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Francis, who died on Monday aged 88, suggested last November that the global community should study whether Israel’s military campaign in Gaza constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people, in some of his most explicit criticism yet of Israel’s conduct in its war with Hamas that began in October, 2023.
In January the pope also called the humanitarian situation in Gaza “shameful”, prompting criticism from Rome’s chief Jewish rabbi who accused Francis of “selective indignation”.
Israel says accusations of genocide in its Gaza campaign are baseless and that it is solely hunting down Hamas and other armed groups.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads a far-right coalition of religious and nationalist parties, has not commented on the pope’s death.
However, Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog on Monday sent a message of condolence to Christians in the Holy Land and around the world, describing Francis as “a man of deep faith and boundless compassion”.
Relations between the Catholic Church and Judaism have improved in recent decades, after centuries of animosity.
Pope Francis was usually careful during his 12-year pontificate about taking sides in conflicts, and he condemned the growth of anti-Semitic groups, while also speaking by phone with Gaza’s tiny Christian community every evening during the war.
Francis in 2014 visited the Western Wall – the most sacred prayer site in Judaism – and also prayed at a section of a wall built by Israel in the occupied West Bank dividing Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
More from The Guardian on Dublin-born Irish-American cardinal Kevin Farrell who will run the Vatican until a new pope is elected:
The cardinal who announced the death of Pope Francis bore the ancient Vatican title of camerlengo and spoke in Italian, but there was no mistaking the Dublin accent.
Long before he rose through the ecclesiastical ranks and was entrusted with temporarily running the Holy See, Kevin Farrell was an altar boy from an Irish republican family in the working-class suburb of Drimnagh.
Or, as the British tabloid Metro put it: “Interim pope is a bloke called Kevin from Dublin.”
As camerlengo, or chamberlain, the 77-year-old Irish American officially ascertained the pope’s death and will organise the conclave that will elect a successor – with Farrell himself a long-shot possibility.
The death of Francis on Monday vaulted the powerful but little known Vatican figure into the global spotlight, and prompted comparisons to the fictional cardinal played by Ralph Fiennes in the film Conclave. (The film made Fiennes the dean of the College of Cardinals but gave him the duties of the real-life camerlengo.)
Farrell has a reputation for personal warmth, a passion for social justice and moderation on doctrinal issues, like Pope Francis. But liberals decry his stances on same-sex marriage and abortion rights, and his decision in 2018 to bar Ireland’s former president, Mary McAleese, from speaking at a Vatican conference, reportedly because of her advocacy for same-sex marriage and female priests. McAleese said she was “profoundly hurt” by the attempt to exclude her.
As a senior bureaucrat – his jobs include running the Vatican’s investments and its Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life, which promotes marriage – he favoured opening the church’s lay movements to younger people. “The future of the movements depends on their ability to change the heads of these movements so that we prepare younger people all the time to take leadership roles,” he told the Jesuit magazine America in 2022.
Farrell was born in 1947 to Edward and Molly Farrell, who worked at the Player Wills tobacco factory on South Circular Road. They instilled in their son respect for the Irish language, Ireland’s republican heritage and the Catholic church.
Young Kevin was not sporty but “very, very bright”, a childhood playmate, Alan Wheelan, told RTÉ.
Molly’s prayers that one of her four sons would become a priest were more than answered; Kevin and his older brother Brian both joined the Legionaries of Christ in the 1960s and went on to become bishops.
After studying theology at the University of Salamanca in Spain and at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Kevin served as a university chaplain in Mexico before moving to the US archdiocese of Washington in 1983. He became a US citizen, ran pastoral centres and charities, and studied business administration at the University of Notre Dame.
Farrell served under Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was later defrocked over allegations of sexual abuse. Farrell said he had no knowledge of wrongdoing by McCarrick. “I was shocked, overwhelmed; I never heard any of this before in the six years I was there with him,” he told CNS in 2018.
In 2007 he was appointed bishop of Dallas and brought to Rome in 2016 by Pope Francis, who made the like-minded Spanish speaker a cardinal tasked with multiple jobs.
Farrell said he accepted the role of camerlengo on condition that Pope Francis outlive him. “I jokingly said to him, ‘I will accept this job, Your Holiness, but on one condition, that you preach at my funeral!’”
The Dubliner is expected to lead a procession that moves the pope’s body from the chapel of the Domus Santa Marta to St Peter’s Basilica and to orchestrate the funeral on Saturday, which dozens of heads of state and government are expected to attend. During the interregnum when there is no pope – the sede vacante – it is Farrell’s duty to destroy Pope Francis’s papal ring.
The conclave is to begin in early May and will conclude with a puff of white smoke that announces the cardinals have selected a new pontiff. Only twice has a cardinal camerlengo become pope: Gioacchino Pecci (Pope Leo XIII) in 1878 and Eugenio Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) in 1939.
President Michael D Higgins said this evening that Pope Francis had “unfinished business” and he expressed the hope that the next pope will build on the steps he was able to take during his tenure.
The President will be among world leaders and dignitaries to attend the funeral of Pope Francis this weekend, along with his wife, Sabina.
Mr Higgins and his wife signed the book of condolences for Francis in the Apostolic Nunciature in Dublin today and speaking afterwards, he said that, on behalf of the people of Ireland, he thanked Pope Francis for work and his example on “embracing the most important issues”.
“Issues that are at the future of our humanity together in relation to climate change, in relation to global poverty, in relation to his particular interest in the welfare of migrants,” Mr Higgins said.
“I thought of the times we have met and the discussions we had, his ability to embrace the suffering, particularly those who are marginalised.
“I noted in the way his vision was wider than many people in politics and public life.
“For example, his ending the Doctrine of Discovery was welcomed by all the indigenous people in the world, in different parts of the world, as pushing an end to that appalling time when doctrinal support was given to colonialism.
“Francis struck that out, I think, on the 30th of March 2023 and it got very little, of course, publicity in the wider secular world, but it was welcomed by all of the people who were working for defending their homelands, and the people, for example, in the Amazon and people who are affected by climate change, who had made the least contribution to the realities of what we were suffering under, but who were paying the highest price.”
Mr Higgins described Francis’s visit to Ireland in August 2018 as a “very warm visit”.
“We were all very, very pleased. I think I met him five times, and I value and appreciate all of those conversations,” he added.
“But I know as I was signing on behalf of all of the people, there are people outside of the Catholic Church – really his stress was always on our shared humanity.”
He added: “I’m sure he would want us to push our emphasis on peace and sustainability and, above all else, rights.
“What was very interesting about him, when I look back at other popes as well, was the ease with which he had, it’s part of the changes in his own life that he did discuss too, of being able to embrace people most agonised in the world, it was a great capacity.
“We were very fortunate in having such a wonderful pope.”
He continued: “I think it’s very appropriate as president of Ireland that I would communicate the appreciation of all of the people of Ireland for the generosity of his life, given right until the very last moments of his life.
“For that reason, I will miss very, very much the statements, all of those documents, which were documents of inclusion. I did say, as well, there was unfinished business that I hope that those who follow him will build on the steps he was able to take.
“I remember, as we finished in some of the conversations, he would say that before asking for prayer and offer, he would say, it’s very difficult.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he’d like to meet his US counterpart Donald Trump in the Vatican on Saturday where global leaders will attend the funeral of Pope Francis.
In the North, books of condolence have been opened in a number of towns and cities and Belfast City Hall will be illuminated in the papal colours of yellow and white on Saturday to mark the funeral of Pope Francis, reports Freya McClements.
It is not clear if any politicians from Northern Ireland have received invitations to attend the funeral.
A special meeting of Belfast City Council will take place on Thursday to “remember and honour” the Pope’s legacy.
Sinn Féin councillor Ryan Murphy paid tribute to Pope Francis as “a man of great faith and a strong, determined leader” who “held a special affinity for Ireland and our people, and he will be particularly remembered here for his visit in 2018 where he spoke he spoke passionately in support of the peace process.
“Even as he battled illness, Pope Francis continued to speak out for peace – including consistently for the people of Gaza.
“Catholics right across the world, including here in Belfast, will feel his loss deeply. May he rest in peace.”
There is obviously going to be a lot of people referencing the film Conclave in the days ahead – this live story has already mentioned it today. In many respects, the conclave that is coming down the tracks will be as interesting as the film – although some of the plot twists are likely to be missing.
The Guardian has an interesting piece this afternoon about how things might play out. Here are some snippets.
The death of Pope Francis will throw into sharp relief the internecine power struggle that has been a hallmark of his papacy.
In the coming days, a ferocious battle for the future of the church will be played out, with the highest of stakes within the sanctity of the Sistine Chapel.
There are more than 250 cardinals in total, but those over the age of 80 are ineligible to take part in the conclave. That leaves 135 eligible cardinals, who will begin making their way to Rome in the coming days.
In the 12 years after Francis became pope, he appointed about 110 of those eligible, casting his net wide across the globe. Some Vatican observers have suggested he stacked the conclave in favour of a successor likely to embrace his outlook and continue his work.
The appointments make it “difficult for an ‘anti-Francis’ pope to emerge”, said Iacopo Scaramuzzi, a Vatican journalist with La Repubblica newspaper and author of the book Tango Vaticano. La Chiesa al Tempo di Francesco (Vatican Tango. The Church in the Time of Francis).
“But it doesn’t mean this group is unanimous and cohesive, or that they have the same ideas. Almost all the cardinals he has chosen are pastors from great dioceses around the world.” There were conservatives as well as progressives among them, Scaramuzzi added ...
For much of Francis’s papacy, the figurehead for conservatives who opposed him was none other than his immediate predecessor. Benedict had promised to remain “hidden from the world” after vacating the papal throne in 2013 – the first pope to resign in 600 years – but had stayed at the Vatican, holding meetings, giving interviews and writing books and articles – and expressing views sharply at odds with those of Francis.
But the staunch opposition to Francis did not fade after Benedict’s death on New Year’s Eve in 2022 ...
Conservatives were infuriated by his softening of the church’s stance on divorced and remarried Catholics, opening the door to some of them receiving communion. Enraging those who adhered to the doctrine that divorce is a sin, the move prompted a group of conservative clerics to accuse Francis of heresy for that too ...
Foremost among his critics was the US cardinal Raymond Burke, who has long pushed back against the pope’s stance on gay rights and social justice issues and who, like Müller, aligns with the views of Donald Trump. Francis marginalised Burke, even stripping him of his salary and Vatican-subsidised apartment. But Burke is still popular among conservative Catholic Americans.
Cardinal Robert Sarah emerged as another arch-rival in January 2020 when he published a book, apparently co-authored with Benedict, which defended clerical celibacy at the moment when Francis was considering a relaxation of the rules. The Guinean cardinal has also railed against Islam, migrants, gay people and the role of women.
Several variables will influence the outcome of the conclave, especially world politics.
“Trump, China, nationalists ... these are variables that will somehow count,” said Scaramuzzi. “Also, maybe there is a desire for someone more orderly, and less charismatic [than Francis]. Several things can carry weight at the time of the vote, which can either move towards a more progressive or conservative choice.”
Pope Francis is being honoured at San Lorenzo de Almagro, the Buenos Aires football club where he remained a member during his 12-year papacy.
Fans from the first-tier Primera División club started gathering from Monday at the club’s chapel to the southwest of the Argentinian capital to bid farewell to their best-known member.
“The pope leaves an unbreakable legacy,” San Lorenzo Club president Marcelo Moretti told Reuters. “For all San Lorenzo fans, he was a source of great pride. It is a very sad day.”
At the chapel, fans lit candles near a statue of Francis adorned with the team’s red and navy blue colours.
San Lorenzo fans took to social media on news of the pope’s death to point out that his club membership number – 88235N-0 – coincided exactly with his age and the time of death.
“He died at 88 years old, at 2:35am (in Buenos Aires) and was member 88235. It really caught my attention,” wrote one San Lorenzo fan on X.
The club confirmed the pope’s membership number to Reuters.
It has now been confirmed that Ireland will be represented at the funeral of Pope Francis by President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina Higgins, Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD and Tánaiste Simon Harris TD.
Pope Francis will lie in state in St Peter’s Basilica from Wednesday until Friday, the Vatican has confirmed.
People will be invited to pay their respects from 11am local time to midnight on Wednesday, from 7am to midnight on Thursday, and for 12 hours from 7am on Friday.
The President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina have arrived at the papal nunciature in Ashtown, Dublin 7, to sign a book of condolences for Pope Francis.
The prospect of Pope Francis visiting Northern Ireland remained “live and open” right up until shortly before his death, a priest who helped organise his historic 2018 visit to the island has said.
Father Tim Bartlett said Irish bishops had extended an “ongoing invitation” to the pontiff to come to the region after an initial proposal to journey north of the border seven years ago was shelved because of time pressures.
He said that “as the time got closer, the Holy Father and those organising the visit realised we can’t just make a short visit to this part of the island, and it wouldn’t fit into that particular event well. (But) the question of him coming back remained very live and very open.”
Abuse survivor Bernadette Fahy said Pope Francis did not know what an industrial or reformatory school was when she met him in 2018, reports Ronan McGreevy.
Ms Fahy was sent to the notorious Goldenbridge orphanage with her three brothers when she was seven, in 1961, and stayed there until she was 18.
She and her siblings were placed there because their father, who was married with another family, walked out on them.
Ms Fahy was one of eight survivors of clerical abuse who met Pope Francis when he visited Ireland in August 2018.
The pope was “totally perplexed” by the concept of industrial schools, she recalled. “He did understand more about mother and baby homes because they exist in Argentina, so he has some sense about that.”
She said the pope was only aware of male-on-male sexual violence. She asked him: “How come you don’t know about this? Why has all of this been kept from you?”
The pope, she believed, was only concerned about abuse perpetrated by diocesan priests and bishops, not abuse carried out by nuns and priests in Orders.
Nevertheless, she told RTÉ Radio 1’s News at One programme that she liked the pope “as a person. He was doing his best, and I think that the Catholic community has lost somebody really good.
“Right up until the last minute he was doing what he said he was going to do with people, and be out among them.”
News of the death of Pope Francis has seen churches in his native Argentina crowded with people paying their respects to the first Latin American pontiff, as president Javier Milei decreed seven days of national mourning.
This outpouring of emotion has been tinged with regret that during his 12-year papacy, Francis never returned home to visit, reports Tom Hennigan. Seven of his trips to 66 countries around the world were to Latin America but the closest he came to Argentina were trips to neighbouring Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia and Chile.
This was in sharp contrast to his two immediate predecessors, Benedict XVI and John Paul II, who returned to their native Germany and Poland respectively early in their pontificates.
For years after his election, Francis spoke of a trip being under consideration. The country’s episcopal synod maintained an open invitation, as did each of the four presidents to hold office during his papacy. But he never made it.
Italy – as is tradition – has confirmed there will be a five-day period of mourning which will continue until Saturday, the day of the funeral of Pope Francis.
Among Pope Francis’s final words was a thank-you to his nurse, who had helped the pope surprise crowds in St Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday with a short tour in his Popemobile for the first time since surviving a five-week bout of double pneumonia.
“Thanks for bringing me to the square,” Francis told Massimiliano Strappetti, who was providing 24-hour care for the pontiff, the Vatican’s official news outlet reported on Tuesday.
About 35,000 Catholic faithful lined the aisles inside St Peter’s Square on Sunday as the pope made his tour, seated in a raised chair in the back of the Popemobile.
There were shouts of “Viva il papa” (long live the pope), and the vehicle stopped occasionally so Francis could bless babies brought forward by papal aides.
The rest of the pope’s final Sunday was spent normally, the Vatican’s outlet reported. He had a “peaceful dinner”, it said. The first signs of a “sudden illness” occurred at 5:30am on Monday.
“A little more than an hour later, making a farewell gesture with his hand to Strappetti ... the pontiff went into a coma,” said the outlet. “He did not suffer, and it all happened very fast.”
The British prime minister Keir Starmer has become the latest world leader to confirm he will attend the funeral of Pope Francis next weekend. Outgoing German chancellor Olaf Scholz will also attend.
In what can only be described as a moment of serendipity that Hollywood executives could scarcely have dreamed of, the critically acclaimed film Conclave – about the election of a pope – is set to land on the Amazon Prime streaming service tomorrow. It is full of drama and intrigue and plot twists – obviously – but it does paint a pretty accurate and engaging picture of how the process to elect a pope unfolds and is likely to be even more popular given the passing of Pope Francis yesterday.
A book set to be published this week contains what are most likely to have been Pope Francis’s last words on the topic of death.
“Death is not the end of everything, but the beginning of something. It is a new beginning ... because eternal life, which those who love already begin to experience on earth, is the beginning of something that will never end,” Francis wrote in the book on old age by Italian cardinal Angelo Scola.
“For this reason, that (death) is a ‘new’ beginning, because we will live something we have never fully lived before: eternity,” he said.
Leo Varadkar has said the papal visit to Ireland in 2018 was “one of the highlights of my time as Taoiseach”.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio 1, the former taoiseach noted that the visit happened at a time when “relations between the church and state weren’t very good for a number of reasons”.
“There was obviously all the different scandals around child abuse and various institutions, mother and baby homes, laundries, industrial schools,” Mr Varadkar said.
He added that he saw the visit as “a reset” in relations.
“I saw it, and I think the Pope, Pope Francis, saw it as well as an opportunity, maybe, for a bit of a reset.”
Mr Varadkar said it was a chance for the church and state to “shake hands again” and agree to have “mutually respectful” relationship, while acknowledging that the Catholic Church “wasn’t in charge of that relationship anymore, in the way it was for most of our history”.
The former Fine Gael leader, Ireland’s first openly gay taoiseach, said he appreciated efforts by Francis to make the church a more welcoming place for members of the LGBT+ community.
He also said it was “very significant” that Pope Francis asked survivors of clerical abuse for forgiveness while in Dublin in 2018.
When asked about the fact that most religious orders have not offered to contribute to the redress scheme for survivors of mother and baby institutions, Mr Varadkar said this was “disappointing”.
Alphonsus Cullinan, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, has said Pope Francis “helped the world to remember the poor and to keep in mind those whom society can reject”.
“Pope Francis, seemed to me had no problem with saying and doing unpopular things. He was not courting popularity. He was made of strong stuff,” Bishop Cullinan said in a statement.
“I was touched by the way in which he dealt with his visit to Ireland in 2018. He reached out with love and of course the people loved him.”
During his visit to Ireland in August 2018, Francis met with survivors of clerical abuse and asked for their forgiveness.
Following the death of Pope Francis, the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church will gather next month to elect a new pope in one of the most famous buildings in the world, the Sistine Chapel.
Below are some facts about the chapel:
- Named after Pope Sixtus IV and built from 1473-81, it is 40 metres (131 feet) long, 13 metres (43 feet) wide and 21 metres (69 feet) high, lit on either side by high windows.
- Michelangelo was commissioned by Julius II to paint the ceiling frescoes, completed between 1508 and 1512. The frescoes show scenes from the Bible’s Old and New Testaments, most famously “The Creation of Adam” in which God reaches with his finger to touch the outstretched hand of the first man.
- More than 20 years later, Michelangelo was commissioned to paint the awe-inspiring “Last Judgement” on the wall behind the altar, which was unveiled in 1541.
- Michelangelo was immediately accused of immorality and obscenity for depicting naked figures in a church. After his death, a law was passed to cover up the offending genitalia with “modesty breeches”, which were added by an apprentice.
- The side walls are decorated by other artists, including Pietro Perugino, Sandro Botticelli and Domenico Ghirlandaio.
- From 1980 to 1994 specialists conducted one of the most ambitious art restoration projects in the world, stripping away centuries of accumulated dirt and soot that had darkened the frescoes. The results divided experts and amateurs, with some criticising the dazzling colours as too bright.
- The Sistine Chapel was first used for a conclave after the death of Sixtus IV in 1484. A number of conclaves have been held elsewhere, including several in the 19th century at the Quirinale Palace, formerly a summer palace for the popes and now the official residence of the Italian president.
- Some 6.8 million people visited the Vatican Museum, which includes the Sistine Chapel, in 2023 - the second most visited museum in the world after the Louvre, according to data site Statista.com.
- German writer Goethe once remarked: “Without having seen the Sistine Chapel, one can form no appreciable idea of what one man is capable of achieving”.
- Reuters
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will attend Pope Francis’ funeral on Saturday, her office has confirmed.
Among other heads of state set to attend are Javier Milei, president of Francis’ native Argentina, Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and US president Donald Trump.
As we reported earlier, both Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris are expected to accompany President Michael D Higgins to the Vatican for the funeral.
Pope Francis broke with tradition in choosing St Mary Major as his burial place.
His funeral will be held on Saturday in St Peter’s Square, in front of the Basilica of St Peter, where most of his predecessors rest.
But his chosen resting place is the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (St. Mary Major), one of the main four churches of Christendom in Rome.
In his final testament, Pope Francis asked to be buried “in the earth, simple, without particular decoration” and with the inscription only of his papal name in Latin: Franciscus.
The last pope to be buried outside the Vatican was Leo XIII, who died in 1903.
St Mary Major, around 4km from the Vatican, was dear to Francis because of his devotion to Mary. He prayed there before setting off on and returning from each overseas trip.
“I’ve always had a great devotion to St Mary Major, even before I became pope,” Francis said in his 2024 book El Sucesor (The Successor), a long interview with journalist Javier Martinez-Brocal.
Argentina-born Francis prayed in the basilica early on March 14th, 2013, the day after he became the first Latin American pope. The church’s gold-leaf ceiling is said to have been made from a batch of the precious metal brought back from the New World by explorer Christopher Columbus.
Francis returned at key moments in his papacy, praying for an end to the Covid-19 pandemic in a locked-down Rome in 2020 and after his abdominal surgeries in 2021 and 2023.
- Reuters
Mourners are gathering in Rome, his native Argentina and other locations across the world to mark the passing of Pope Francis.
Pope Francis’s funeral mass, which will take place on Saturday morning, will be celebrated by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Giovanni Battista Re, the Holy See has confirmed.
The pope’s funeral will draw major political figures to Rome at a time of escalating geopolitical tensions.
US president Donald Trump said on Monday that he and first lady Melania Trump will attend the funeral, embarking on the first foreign trip of his second term.
A day before his death, Francis met with US vice-president JD Vance, a recent Catholic convert.
- Bloomberg
Dermot Farrell, Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland, has said that Pope Francis’s life was “marked by numerous profound changes”.
“All that he became was rooted in his deep prayer, in his trust in the journey of Jesus, and in his abandonment of himself to the will of God. He has now set out on the final stage of his pilgrimage to God,” Archbishop Farrell said in a statement.
He noted that, at the end of almost every audience and address, Pope Francis “would assure those present of his prayers, and ask them - with great simplicity - to pray for him”.
“As we give thanks for the extraordinary gift he was and is for us all, let us do the one thing he asked for himself, let us pray for him,” Archbishop Farrell added.
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio has praised Pope Francis as “a transformational leader - not only for the Catholic Church, but also for environmental reform and activism”.
In a post on Instagram, Mr DiCaprio wrote that the late pontiff “demonstrated a deep and unwavering commitment to environmental stewardship, most notably through his groundbreaking 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’”.
“This powerful document served as a clarion call for a fundamental shift in how we relate to the planet,” he added.
Mr DiCaprio said Francis’s words helped catalyse momentum ahead of the global COP21 conference in 2015, “ultimately contributing to the formation of the Paris Agreement”.
Archbishop Eamon Martin, Primate of All Ireland, has said the most important thing about Pope Francis was the way he presented himself as a person of prayer.
He told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that he felt encouraged by Francis to communicate the joy of the gospel as a church leader, noting many people feel lost in today’s world.
“They feel that they are vulnerable, they feel that the world is fragile and fragmented. And to try and bring that message of hope and the joy of the gospel to everyone, that for me has been his fundamental contribution,” Archbishop Martin said.
Both Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris are expected to accompany President Michael D Higgins to the Vatican on Saturday for the funeral of Pope Francis.
Government sources said that while no invitations have been issued yet, it is expected that the leaders of both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will travel to represent the Government, along with President Higgins, Jack Horgan-Jones reports.
With the Dáil Easter break in effect, no full cabinet meeting is planned for this week, but it is expected that an incorporeal meeting of the Government will be held to sign off on the plan for President Higgins to travel.
The funeral of Pope Francis will take place on Saturday, with his body going on public display from Wednesday at St Peter’s Basilica for mourners to pay their respects.
Irish-born Cardinal Kevin Farrell – the camerlengo or senior Vatican official – will carry out the administrative and financial duties of the Holy See until a new pope takes over.
Cardinal Nichols, the leader of Catholics in England and Wales, presided over a requiem mass for Francis at Westminster Cathedral on Monday evening.
He told worshippers gathered in the London church that Francis had been a pope “filled with compassion, mercy, righteous indignation and irrepressible hope, for which we thank God”.
Asked about the next pope at a separate press conference on Monday, Cardinal Nichols told reporters: “He has to be a man of great inner strength, and I think great inner peace.”
“I think those inner capacities of closeness to God and peace are the absolute essentials.”
- PA
In a different take on the role of women in the church, Justine McCarthy said Pope Francis wasn’t necessarily the reformer many people have dubbed him.
“Some commentators have hailed him as a reformer for women in the church because of a few measures he instituted, such as appointing a small number of them to vote in the synod general assembly,” she wrote.
“Yet, despite travelling to the Marian shrine at Knock and despite then taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s reminder to him in a welcome speech about the cruelties the church dispensed in Magdalene laundries, mother and baby homes and in fixing illegal adoptions, the pope steered clear of the subject of prejudice against women.”
Sr Pat Murray, a Loreto Sister in Rome, said that Pope Francis was a warm person who “had the capacity to reach people and searched for those fragile or vulnerable in any way”.
She told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that Pope Francis put a great emphasis on listening to the voices of women and creating space for women to take up roles of leadership and authority in the church.
Sr Murray said there are many sisters and lay women in leadership roles in the Vatican who have influence on changing culture.
She added that when you are changing culture in any organisation, patience is needed.
“This will take time, but I’ve seen that change happening already,” she added.
The meeting of cardinals at the Vatican has now confirmed some details about the pope’s funeral.
It will take place on Saturday 27th April at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome at 9am Irish time (10am local time).
This will also begin the first of nine days of mourning.
The conclave to choose a new pope will likely begin around May 5th, at the end of the nine-day mourning period.
There has been much commentary over the past 24 hours regarding Pope Francis’ legacy.
Fr Brendan Hoban wrote that, despite some flaws, Francis was his hero.
Fr Hoban said that Francis’s different approach to his predecessors, and efforts to make the Church more inclusive, brought about a “sea change”.
“There were mistakes and gaps too in Francis’s legacy. It took him some time to get up to speed on clerical child sexual abuse, but when he did, as on his visit to Ireland, he hit the ground running – placing an unswerving focus on the needs of victims," Fr Hoban wrote.
Read his full reflection here.
Britain’s King Charles has worn a black tie as a mark of respect to the Pope as he met the prime minister of New Zealand at Windsor Castle.
King Charles, who is head of the Church of England, carried out his first official engagement since the death of the pontiff, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, on Easter Monday.
The King and New Zealand’s premier Christopher Luxon, who was also wearing a black tie, were said to have taken the opportunity to “reflect on Pope Francis’s remarkable life and legacy”, a source said.
Charles and Queen Camilla had a moving private meeting with Pope Francis on their state visit to Italy, just 12 days before the 88-year-old died after a cerebral stroke.
- PA
Pope Francis will be taken to St Peter’s Basilica in Rome at 9am local time (8am Irish time) on Wednesday, the Vatican has confirmed.
The Vatican has released images of Pope Francis in his open casket, lying in his apartment in Rome.
World leaders are set to attend Pope Francis’s funeral, details of which are yet to be confirmed.
Among them will be Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, according to Reuters.
“The office of the president is awaiting the date of the Pope’s burial and preparing the president’s visit to Rome to bid farewell to the pontiff,” the source said.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Monday said he would be honoured to go to the funeral of the pope but added that “all the arrangements have to be worked out”.
China’s foreign ministry has expressed condolences following Pope Francis’s death.
“In recent years, China and the Vatican have maintained constructive contact and carried out friendly exchanges,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said.
“China is willing to make joint efforts with the Vatican to promote the continued improvement of China-Vatican relations,” he added.
Dublin-born Irish-American cardinal Kevin Farrell will run the Vatican until a new pope is elected.
Cardinal Farrell (77) was born in Drimnagh and has spent most of his clerical life in the United States. He is the most senior Irish man at the Vatican.
Cardinal Farrell was educated by the Christian Brothers, as was his older brother, Bishop Brian Farrell, but neither man served as a priest in Ireland.
Brian Farrell started working at the Vatican in 1981 and served as secretary to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity until his retirement last year.
Cardinal Farrell was the Vatican official responsible for co-ordinating efforts around the World Meeting of Families in Dublin in August 2018, which included a visit by Pope Francis.
That same year, the Vatican barred former president Mary McAleese from taking part in a conference in Italy to mark International Women’s Day. Her attendance was opposed by Cardinal Farrell, who had previously held the position of prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life.
Pope Francis in 2019 named Cardinal Farrell as camerlengo, the prelate who runs the Vatican between the death or resignation of a pontiff and the election of a new one.
The camerlengo cannot make any big decisions or change church teachings. When a pope dies, the camerlengo officially confirms the death, oversees the destruction of that pope’s papal ring and seals the papal residence and office.
The camerlengo is entrusted with orchestrating the funeral rites and overseeing preparations for the forthcoming conclave to elect a new pontiff.
Mary Carolan has written a summary of Mr Farrell’s career here.
Who will be the next pope after Francis and how does the process work?
Speculation around who is in the running to succeed Pope Francis comes with health warnings as favourites, or papabiles, often remain cardinals.
Currently there are 252 members of the College of Cardinals, 138 of whom are under 80 and so eligible to vote in a conclave. Ireland’s only cardinal, former Archbishop of Armagh Seán Brady, is 85 and so cannot vote.
Of the current College of Cardinals, 163 were appointed by Francis. They come from 76 countries, of which 25 have never represented at the College before, including Haiti, Myanmar, El Salvador, Sweden, Luxembourg and South Sudan.
Altogether 110 (79 per cent) of cardinals eligible to vote in a conclave anytime soon have been appointed by Francis, with 24 (17 per cent) appointed by Benedict XVI and six (4 per cent) appointed by pope John Paul.
It is, therefore, probably safe to say then that the next pope will be in the Francis mould, though that is not guaranteed. After all, the cardinals who elected Francis in 2013 had been appointed by popes Benedict and John Paul II.
Read Patsy McGarry’s overview of the process here.
The upcoming gathering of cardinals will also review the day-to-day running of the Catholic Church in the period before a new pope is elected.
A conclave to choose a new pope normally takes place 15 to 20 days after the death of a pontiff, meaning it should not start before May 6th.
Some 135 cardinals are eligible to participate in the highly secretive ballot which can stretch over days.
At present there is no clear front-runner to succeed Francis.
– Reuters
All cardinals currently in Rome have been invited to gather in the Vatican at 9am on Tuesday (7am local time), where they were expected to make funeral plans.
The Vatican has said it expects the ceremony to take place sometime between Friday and Sunday. In a break from tradition, Francis confirmed in his final testament released on Monday that he wished to be buried in Rome’s Basilica of St Mary Major and not St Peter’s Basilica.
Much of the focus is now turning to what happens next.
Cardinals are due to meet on Tuesday to plan Pope Francis’ funeral, which leaders from around the world will attend before a conclave next month to elect a new head of the Catholic Church.
Francis’s death set in motion ancient rituals, as the 1.4-billion-member Church started the transition from one pope to another, including the breaking of the pope’s “Fisherman’s Ring” and lead seal so they cannot be used by anyone else.
Tributes have been pouring in from around the world following the death of Pope Francis, who died on Monday.
President Michael D Higgins led the tributes in Ireland, expressing his “profound sadness”, saying Francis’s voice constituted a “consistent invocation of a shared humanity”.
The pontiff died of a stroke and “irreversible heart failure”. The death certificate, prepared by Vatican doctor Andrea Arcangeli, said the 88-year-old had fallen into a coma before his death early on Monday.
