The Vatican announced on Tuesday that Pope Francis’s funeral will take place on Saturday, with world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, confirming their attendance to pay tribute to the Catholic leader.
The 88-year-old Argentine pontiff passed away on Monday following a stroke, just weeks after returning home from a five-week hospital stay due to a battle with double pneumonia. His funeral, anticipated to attract large crowds, will be held at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) on Saturday in the square in front of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.
Francis’s coffin — which he previously ordered should be of wood and zinc — will then be taken inside the church and from there to the Rome basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore for burial.
The date was set by the first so-called “general congregation” of cardinals on Tuesday morning, which kicked off a centuries-old process that culminates in the election of a new pontiff within three weeks.
Earlier, the Vatican published the first images of the pontiff in his open coffin, ahead of its transfer to St Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday at 9:00 am (0700 GMT), to lie in state.
The pope’s body was photographed during a service Monday evening in the chapel of Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican residence where he lived during his 12-year papacy, and where he died.
Francis was wearing his red papal vestments, a mitre on his head and had a rosary between his fingers.
Tributes have poured in from around the globe for Francis, a liberal reformer who took over following the resignation of German theologian Benedict XVI in 2013.
His home country, Argentina, prepared for a week of national mourning while India began three days of state mourning on Tuesday — a rare honour for a foreign religious leader in the world’s most populous nation. Heads of state and royalty are expected for his funeral, with Trump and France’s Emmanuel Macron the first to announce they would attend even before a date was confirmed.
On Tuesday, a source at the Ukrainian presidency told AFP that Zelensky, too, would come to Rome.
Cardinals of all ages are invited to the congregations, although only those under the age of 80 are eligible to vote for a new pope in the conclave. The conclave should begin no less than 15 and no more than 20 days after the death of the pope.
READ MORE: The IMF has revised Nigeria’s economic growth forecast downward to 3.0%.
The pope’s body was moved into the Santa Marta chapel on Monday evening, and his apartment formally sealed, the Vatican said.
