How Pope Francis reshaped the traditions of papal funerals
How Pope Francis reshaped the traditions of papal funerals
Updated: 3:48 AM MDT Apr 26, 2025
Around 200,000 people flocked to St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City for the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday. In the days leading up to the funeral Mass, the Vatican said more than 150,000 filed past Francis’ open wooden coffin as he lay in state at St. Peter’s Basilica. In keeping with Francis’ image as “a pope of the people,” the rites and rituals are different from those of pontiffs past. Here’s why:Francis, who died on Monday, revised various rites last year, simplifying the funeral rituals to emphasize his role as a mere bishop and allowing for burial outside the Vatican in keeping with his wishes. But the core elements remain, including the three key moments that must be observed between the death of a pope and his burial.As part of Francis’ push to simplify the papal funeral rites, his body is in a single wooden coffin lined with zinc, rather than having three nested coffins of cypress, lead and oak as was tradition.While popes often tinker with the rules regulating the conclave that elects their successor, a revision of the papal funeral rites hadn’t been undertaken since 2000.The changes became necessary after Francis expressed his own wishes, and after Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI died on Dec. 31, 2022. For Benedict, the Vatican had to work out the novelty of a funeral for the first retired pope in 600 years.A few months later, Francis revealed he was working with the Vatican’s master of liturgical ceremonies, Archbishop Diego Ravelli, to overhaul the entire book of rites to simplify them.In explaining the reforms, Ravelli said the changes aimed “to emphasize even more that the Roman Pontiff’s funeral is that of a pastor and disciple of Christ and not of a powerful man of this world.”The Associated Press and CNN contributed to this report
VATICAN CITY —Around 200,000 people flocked to St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City for the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday.
In the days leading up to the funeral Mass, the Vatican said more than 150,000 filed past Francis’ open wooden coffin as he lay in state at St. Peter’s Basilica.
In keeping with Francis’ image as “a pope of the people,” the rites and rituals are different from those of pontiffs past. Here’s why:
Francis, who died on Monday, revised various rites last year, simplifying the funeral rituals to emphasize his role as a mere bishop and allowing for burial outside the Vatican in keeping with his wishes. But the core elements remain, including the three key moments that must be observed between the death of a pope and his burial.
As part of Francis’ push to simplify the papal funeral rites, his body is in a single wooden coffin lined with zinc, rather than having three nested coffins of cypress, lead and oak as was tradition.
While popes often tinker with the rules regulating the conclave that elects their successor, a revision of the papal funeral rites hadn’t been undertaken since 2000.
The changes became necessary after Francis expressed his own wishes, and after Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI died on Dec. 31, 2022. For Benedict, the Vatican had to work out the novelty of a funeral for the first retired pope in 600 years.
A few months later, Francis revealed he was working with the Vatican’s master of liturgical ceremonies, Archbishop Diego Ravelli, to overhaul the entire book of rites to simplify them.
In explaining the reforms, Ravelli said the changes aimed “to emphasize even more that the Roman Pontiff’s funeral is that of a pastor and disciple of Christ and not of a powerful man of this world.”
The Associated Press and CNN contributed to this report
