Pope Francis’s body to go on public display ahead of funeral on Saturday
The 88-year-old died on Easter Monday.
The funeral of the late Pope Francis will take place on Saturday, with his body going on public display from Wednesday for mourners to pay their respects.
The news came as the first images of the late pontiff were published.
The 88-year-old, who died on Easter Monday, was pictured lying in a wooden coffin dressed in red, with rosary beads draped across his hands.
It has been confirmed that Francis’s body will be on display for the public to pay their respects in St Peter’s Basilica from Wednesday morning.
Details of Francis’s funeral have also been confirmed, with Mass to take place at 10am local time on Saturday in St Peter’s Square, celebrated by the dean of the College of Cardinals.
He had, in his will, requested that he is buried in a simple underground tomb at St Mary Major Basilica.
His death, following a cerebral stroke that led to a coma and irreversible heart failure, prompted an outpouring of tributes across the globe.
The King, who met Francis earlier this month, said he was someone who had “profoundly touched the lives of so many”, while Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he had been “a pope for the poor, the downtrodden and the forgotten”.
US President Donald Trump had already said on social media he and his wife Melania plan to attend the funeral.
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.
Before 120 cardinals, senior members of the Catholic Church, convene in the Sistine Chapel for the conclave – the secret meeting at which a new pope will be elected – the Church enters a period called “sede vacante”, or “the vacant See”.
Following the funeral, there are nine days of official mourning, with the conclave required to begin 15 to 20 days after the sede vacante is declared, although it can start sooner if the cardinals agree.
Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols is among those travelling to Rome.
There are currently five cardinals across the UK and Ireland, although only three – Cardinal Nichols, Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe and Rome-based Cardinal Arthur Roche – are younger than 80 and therefore of voting age.
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.”
He added: “I think those inner capacities of closeness to God and peace are the absolute essentials.”
Cardinal Radcliffe said: “I think that we always open ourselves to be surprised. All recent popes have been quite different from each other.”
Cardinals Nichols and Radcliffe both appeared to rule themselves out of the running to become the next pontiff.
Cardinal Nichols told reporters he was “too old, not capable”, while Cardinal Radcliffe said he believed the Holy Spirit was “far too wise to even think of me (as pope) for the shortest moment”.
