The funeral of Pope Francis will be held on Saturday on Saint-Pierre square, in front of the Basilica of Saint-Pierre, marking the beginning of a very choreographed process to select a new pope imbued with history and politics.
Every 252 cardinals around the world will attend the funeral – and at least 120 will then meet to elect the next chief of the 1 billion members of the Catholic church in a sacred process known as the Conclave. There are already a lot of speculation on which will select the cardinals and if this new pope will continue the pastoral priorities of François for the poor and the reform of the bureaucracy of the Vatican.
On Monday morning, the Vatican announced that the 88 -year -old Pope died of a stroke and “an irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse”, according to the Vatican News, an official publication of the Vatican.
As 266th church chief, he was venerated by many Catholics and theologians for his commitment to social justice and focus on the ministry of the Church towards migrants, the poor and the oppressed. Although he followed the conservative doctrines of the Church on abortion and LGBTQ rights, he shaken the conservative standards of the Church when he told the clerics to be “obsessed with these questions.
Pope Francis’ Saturday funerals and after
The funeral is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Pacific standard hour.
Taking into account the tradition, the Vatican health service checks the Pope’s death in his house and his body placed in a coffin and transferred to the Saint-Pierre basilica for the observation of the pubic, the funeral mass and the burial.
Meanwhile, Cardinal Kevin Farrell acts as cardinal Camerlengo, a person whom the pope appoints before their death who is responsible for certain tasks during the transition to a successor, reported NPR. These tasks include the destruction of the symbolic fisherman’s ring of the deceased pope (used to seal the Vatican documents) and the preparation of the conclave.
The body of the pope must be buried between the fourth and the sixth day after death. Last year, Pope Francis changed the practice of the popes buried in three coffins at only two, the body is placed in a wooden coffin with a zinc coffee inside, reported PBS. In accordance with the changes, it will be buried at the St. Mary Major basilica, located outside the Vatican, a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary whom he visited at the beginning and at the end of each apostolic trip he made during his 12 -year papacy.
After the funeral, nine days ago of official mourning known as “Novinali”. It was at this time that the College of Cardinals will meet in the sixtine chapel of the Vatican city for the conclave.
What you need to know about the conclave
The conclave is a gathering of 120 cardinals of the church which hold a secret vote in the Sistine Chapel to elect the next Pope.
There is no date set for the conclave, but it must be held 15 to 20 days after the “vacant sede”, a vacancy of the papacy caused by the death or the resignation of a Pope, is declared.
During the voting sessions, the voting bulletins are filled, counted, then burned. After each voting cycle, smoke is released from a chimney at the top of the church. Black smoke means that no pope has been selected and a new voting series will take place. White smoke means that a pope has been chosen.
To be elected as the leader, the next pope needs two thirds of the votes.
This vote will include cardinals from countries with historically important congregations such as France, Italy and the United States, but also others from more distant places like Mongolia, chaired by Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, who Pope Francis appointed in 2022, said Father Allan Deck, learned theology and Latin studies at Loyola theological.
“Although there are still cardinals from some of the largest Catholic cities in the world, he would choose cardinals from places that were on the outskirts,” said the father. Deck said the pope of fire. “This was in accordance with the idea that he had that the church should go to the outskirts and not only stay with the center, those that receive the most attention, but to pay attention to those who are not. Usually it is people in the poorest areas who are the people who are forgotten. ”
Currently, 80% of the cardinals who will participate in the conclave have been handpicked by Pope Francis.
“It is a different composition of what we have had in the past, to a certain extent, due to the inclusion of so many cardinals of small areas of the world,” said the father. Said bridge.
Why there will be no California cardinal in the conclave
For the first time in a long time, California will not have a cardinal represented in the conclave.
Cardinal Roger Mahony – who directed the Archdiocese of Los Angeles from 1985 to 2011 – is prohibited from the process for two reasons: his involvement in the concealment of sexual abuses in the prohibition of the Church is the involvement of public or administrative duties; And at the age of 89 sold, he is aged because participants in Conclave must be under 80 years old.
California had Cardinal Robert Mcelroy, born in San Francisco and has long worked in churches from San Francisco, San Mateo and more recently San Diego. Cardinal Mcelroy regularly progressed to become the archdiocean vicar for parish life and development and played this role until his appointment was the sixth bishop of San Diego in March 2015.
Pope Francis appointed Bishop Mcelroy to the Cardinals College in 2022 and three years later, Francis appointed Cardinal Mcelroy the eighth Archbishop of Washington on January 6.
Archbishop José H. Gomez of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles is unable to participate because he is not a cardinal. Francis considered his opinions too conservative to raise him to positition, said David Gibson, director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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