Check out the official program for Pope Francis’ funeral this Saturday

THE funeral of Pope Franciswho died on Monday (21) at the age of 88, will take place on Saturday (26) at 10h00 (5h00 Brasília) in Vaticanfollowed by his burial in the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica of Rome, announced the Holy See. Funeral Mass will be celebrated in St. Peter’s Square, located in front of the Basilica of the same name and where the first Latin American pontiff made his last public appearance on Easter Sunday.

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Learn more about the ceremony

The ceremony is full of rites, among them, the Mass of Exequias, which marks the beginning of the nine days of mourning and prayers in honor of the Pontiff. The presence of faithful and authorities around the world is expected. Francisco sought to simplify these rites and gave up the secular practice in which the Church head is buried in three interconnected coffins made of cypress, lead and oak. Instead, the Argentine will be buried in a single zinc -coated wooden coffin.

The use of a high platform in the Basilica of St. Peter for the wake, as happened with the previous pontiffs, was also abolished. The faithful were invited to pay their honors while Francis’ body was inside the coffin with the lid open.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, First Lady Janja, former President Dilma Roussef, the president of the Supreme Court (STF), Luis Roberto Barroso, Senate President David Alcolumbre, and the Chamber, Hugo Motta, as well as other state ministers paid tributes to the last day of the funeral on Saturday.

Francisco opted for the funeral in the Church of Santa Maria Maior in Rome, instead of the Basilica of St. Peter, which houses more than 90 popes. He attended the place to say his prayers in Rome. Before him, Leo XIII, in 1903, had opted for the burial in the Church of St. John of Lateran.

The Pope declared his desire to be buried outside the Vatican in 2023. “I want to be buried in Santa Maria Maggiore because of my great devotion by the Virgin,” Mexican journalist Valentina Alakraki confided.

Marian devotion is old: So Cardinal, Bergoglio attended the basilica next to the ending station already when he was the archbishop of Buenos Aires: “I always went there on Sunday morning, when I was in Rome.”

After the nine days of mourning, the Vatican begins the conclave to choose the new leader of the Catholic Church.

See the official program of the ceremonies to give the last goodbye to the Pontiff:

00h30 (from Brasilia)

• Opening of St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican

04h30

• US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump will arrive at the square;
• Other heads of state are also awaited, such as Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Argentine President Javier Milei, and the kings of Spain, Felipe VI and Leticia.

05h00

• Beginning of the funeral table presided by Italian Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals;
• The ceremony will last an hour and a half and will be attended by 224 cardinals and 750 bishops and priests;
• The wooden and zinc coffin, which will be sealed on Friday night, will be placed in the square in front of the altar;
• Delegations will sit in alphabetical order, to the right of the altar and coffin, facing the Basilica;
• In the front row will be Milei, as president of the homeland of the late pontiff, and its Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella;
• They will be followed by the ten acting monarchs and about 50 heads of state, including Daniel Noboa, Ecuador, Xiomara Castro, from Honduras, and Luis Abinader of the Dominican Republic;
• The cardinals will be on the left side.

These will be the highlights of the multilingual mass, in chronological order:

• Readings
• Homile of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re
• Universal prayer
• Consecration of Bread and Wine
• Participants exchange peace gesture (handshake)
• Communion
• Silence for Personal Prayer
• Patriarchs, archbishops and metropolites of the Eastern Catholic churches approach the coffin
• The celebrant will sprinkle the pontiff with holy water
• Coffin enters the Basilica of St. Peter

Around 6:30 am:

• The coffin sets towards the Basilica of Santa Maria Maior and will be visible to the audience behind metal barriers along the way. Screens will transmit their displacement.
• For about 30 minutes, the procession will slowly travel the streets of Rome for about four kilometers, passing through emblematic places, such as the imperial forums and the Colosseum.

Around 07h00:

• Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s remains arrive at Santa Maria Maior, one of the four papal basilicas of Rome. A group of disadvantaged people will receive you as a symbol of your pontificate.
• Cardinal Camerlengo Kevin Farrell will preside over the burial, which will be held privately.

*With information from AFP and Estadão Content
Posted by Carolina Ferreira