{"id":114221,"date":"2025-04-26T08:03:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T08:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/04\/26\/pope-francis-funeral-a-visual-guide\/"},"modified":"2025-04-26T08:03:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T08:03:56","slug":"pope-francis-funeral-a-visual-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/pope-francis-funeral-a-visual-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis\u2019 funeral: A visual guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 26 \u2013 The funeral of Pope Francis will be simpler than those of previous popes, following instructions he set out himself.<\/p>\n

But as a head of state and leader of more than a billion Catholics worldwide, it will still be a spectacle of ceremony and tradition.<\/p>\n

His death has drawn famous figures, politicians, and thousands of followers to Vatican City to pay their respects.<\/p>\n

What time does the funeral start?<\/h2>\n

Archbishops and bishops will start gathering\u00a0at 08:30 local time<\/strong>\u00a0(07:30 BST) in the Constantine Wing, a corridor adjacent to St Peter\u2019s Basilica.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Catholic priests will congregate in St Peter\u2019s Square.<\/p>\n

Half an hour later,\u00a0at 09:00 local time<\/strong>, patriarchs from the Orthodox church and cardinals will congregate in Saint Sebastian Chapel, inside the basilica, where the remains of Pope John Paul II lie.<\/p>\n

They will walk in a funeral procession accompanying the Pope\u2019s coffin, which has spent the last four days in the centre of St Peter\u2019s Basilica.<\/p>\n

The funeral starts\u00a0at 10:00<\/strong>\u00a0when the coffin is laid in the square in front of St Peter\u2019s Basilica. The service will be led by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re.<\/p>\n

You can follow the order of service in full here.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u200b\u200bGuests and dignitaries will be seated closer to the basilica and coffin, with thousands of other clergy and members of the public in and around St Peter\u2019s Square, similar to the funeral for Pope Benedict XVI shown below.<\/p>\n

The service will end with prayers for Pope Francis and a final commendation \u2013 a concluding prayer where the Pope will be formally entrusted to God.<\/p>\n

This marks the beginning of a nine-day mourning period called Novemdiales with a mass held every day in his memory.<\/p>\n

Who will be attending?<\/h2>\n

Officials expect at least 250,000 members of the public to attend the funeral and there are some 170 heads of state or government on the guestlist.<\/p>\n

Prince William will represent King Charles III, continuing a precedent set in 2005 when the then-Prince of Wales attended Pope John Paul II\u2019s funeral on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II.<\/p>\n

Other heads of state and royals\u00a0have confirmed their attendance<\/a>, including US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, Spain\u2019s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, and Brazil\u2019s President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva.<\/p>\n

How can you tell a bishop from a cardinal?<\/h2>\n

There will also be hundreds of members of the clergy, with each group having a specific dress code for the service.<\/p>\n

For bishops and archbishops, the liturgical clothes for a funeral include the\u00a0alb<\/em>, a white tunic held by a traditional cord called\u00a0cincture<\/em>, the\u00a0amice<\/em>, a short linen cloth to cover the neck, and a red\u00a0chasuble<\/em>, a solemn cape, in honour of the pope. Finally, they don a simple white linen or silk mitre on their heads.<\/p>\n

Cardinals wear similar clothes, but they can be distinguished by their more ornate damask pattern mitres, which look cream rather than white.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 26 \u2013 The funeral of Pope Francis will be simpler than those of previous popes, following instructions he set out himself. But as a head of state and leader of more than a billion Catholics worldwide, it will still be a spectacle of ceremony and tradition. His death has drawn famous figures, politicians, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}