Delegations from at least 130 countries, including 10 reigning monarchs and about 50 heads of state, will attend the funeral of Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square at 9am Irish time on Saturday.
The entire ceremony, from Mass to burial at the Basilica of St Mary Major, is expected to take about four hours.
Attendance at the funeral Mass will include President Michael D Higgins, Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Simon Harris, Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, the British prime minster Keir Starmer and Prince William, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and US president Donald Trump.
About 250 cardinals will also be in attendance.
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Presiding at the Mass will be Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re (91), Dean of the College of Cardinals, with the Choir of the Sistine Chapel also taking part. The homily is by Cardinal Re and will be followed by prayers of the faithful in French, Arabic, Portuguese, Polish, German and Chinese.
The wooden and zinc coffin containing Francis’s remains, sealed on Friday evening, will be placed on the forecourt of St Peter’s Basilica for the duration of the Mass.
At the end of the funeral Mass, and in accordance with the Francis’s wishes, his coffin will be taken at a slow pace through Rome to the Basilica of St Mary Major, about 4km from St Peter’s.
This is to allow Romans to say goodbye to their Bishop along a route he often travelled to pray before the icon of the Virgin Salus Populi Romani in St Mary Major. He did so before and after each of his 47 trips abroad and, more recently, when he left the Gamelli hospital on March 28th last.
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His coffin will be welcomed at the steps of St Mary Major by about 40 poor people, each holding a white rose. They will include the homeless, prisoners, migrants and transgender individuals, all paying a last tribute to him.
His coffin will be carried inside the basilica to its burial place between the chapel of Salus Populi Romani, the Marian icon he venerated, and the basilica’s Sforza Chapel. The actual burial will take place privately after Camerlengo Cardinal Kevin Farrell, from Dublin, marks the coffin with his seal.
It will then be laid in a prepared tomb and sprinkled with holy water, after which an official act confirming the burial will be read aloud and signed by Cardinal Farrell.
The tomb has been made with stone taken from the Liguria area of Italy where the pontiff’s family had their origins. It is a simple tomb with the inscription Franciscus and a reproduction of his pectoral cross.
The entire ceremony, from Mass to burial, is expected to be completed by 1pm Irish time.
