A few days after the funeral of Pope Francis, All of the Vatican He is mobilized both by the news of his death and for Saturday’s ceremony. It has a series of steps to be fulfilled and a farewell is expected with a strong symbolic load full of rituals, but with changes from an intervention of the Pontiff in 2024.
Among his latest measures, the Holy Father had simplified this type of rite, as one of his actions based on modesty.
How will the funeral of Pope Francis
The Vatican said that the funeral will follow the rites established in the “Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis”It is a liturgical book published in 2000, which details the procedures for papal funerals and was reviewed by Francisco last year.
The master of apostolic ceremonies Diego Ravelli He said Francisco had sought to “simplify and adapt” the ceremony. For the high pontiff, The papal funeral had to be “that of a pastor and disciple of Christ, and not of a powerful person in this world”.
Thus, Francisco will be fired austera in a ceremony as established by this book. As part of his message, Jorge Bergoglio decided that his body rests in a simple coffin, instead of the traditional fact of three types of wood.
The faithful can fire him in the San Pedro Basilica And from there the so -called “novelty” will begin: masses of deceased held in his honor for nine consecutive days, starting with that of the funeral.
Below are some considerations about this week of farewell, even for Saturday:
- Goodbye to triple coffin: traditionally the body of the Pope was introduced into a triple coffin, composed of cypress, lead and oak wood, but Francisco preferred a single wood.
- The face and coins: the deceased’s face is covered with a white silk handkerchief And in its coffin a metal tube is introduced with a parchment that contains its most important works in life. It also puts a bag with coined coins during its pontificate. The custom indicates that one of gold should be put for each year of the kingdom, one of silver for each month and bronze for each day.
- Funeral transfer: After watching the body, the coffin is taken to the Basilica of San Pedro del Vaticano for exposure to the faithful and authorities. During the funeral courtship, the response ‘releases me, Domine, of Morte Aeterna’ (deliver me lord of eternal death) and the litanies will be sung.
- Before the faithful: Francisco’s body will be exposed but, instead of doing so in a catafalco, he preferred to be in his own coffin, open. He also rejected that the papal staff be placed next to him. Normally the exhibition lasted three days.
- Funeral: The date of the pontifical funeral rite is according to the one to choose a plenary meeting of Cardinals. In the cases of the last four popes, Pablo VI, Juan Pablo I, Juan Pablo II and Benedict XVI, this rite was in the Vatican Square, outdoors.
- The grave: Francisco also changed the funeral liturgy manual to allow its burial in a place other than the Vatican crypt. In his case, he expressed his desire to be buried in the Roman Basilica of Santa María la Mayor.
How was the pilgrimage of the coffin to the Basilica of San Pedro
The public mourning period began at 11 in the morning after Francisco’s coffin was transferred from the Vatican hotel where he lived to the Basilica.
The carriers carried the simple wooden coffin on their shoulders through the Vatican arches that lead to the Plaza de San Pedro and the Basilicafollowed by the cardinals dressed in scarlet cassocks, bishops with purple robes and the Swiss guards with their golden and blue uniforms.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who manages the Vatican temporarily until a new Pope is chosen, headed the procession, with incense clouds preceding it while the church choir began to sing the anthem of the litany of the saints. The cardinals approached the coffin in pairs, bowed and made the sign of the cross, followed by small groups of bishops, ujieres, priests and nuns
The coffin almost at ground level, the last will of Pope Francis
Pope Francis’s body is in the Basilica of San Pedro after being transferred during a procession this Wednesday, will remain there for three days until his funeral that will take place next Saturday and thousands of people attended to fire him.
After the procession, once inside the basilica, His coffin was not placed in a high catafalcoas was the case with previous potatoes, but it simply placed in a ramp inclined before the main altar of the 16th -century basilica, in the face of the banks, with four Swiss guards standing next to them.
The disposition responded to Francisco’s own wishes that all rituals surrounding a papal funeral were simplified and reflected the role of the Pope as a simple pastor, not a world leader.
Source: Ambito
