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Pope Francis’ Funeral On Saturday; Body To Lie In State

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

VATICAN CITY (Worthy News) – The body of the late Pope Francis will be transferred to St. Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday to lie in state until his funeral on Saturday morning, the Vatican announced.

Earlier, on Wednesday, the coffin containing the Pope’s body was to be carried from the chapel of the “Casa Santa Marta” the guest house where he lived, to the adjacent “St. Peter’s Basilica, so that the faithful may pay their respects,” the Vatican explained.

Saturday’s eventual funeral of Pope Francis, who passed away suddenly on Easter Monday at age 88, was due to draw leaders from around the world.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump, who clashed repeatedly with the pope about immigration, said he and his wife would fly to Rome for the service.

Among other heads of state set to attend were Javier Milei, president of Francis’ native Argentina, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to a source in his office.

Francis died unexpectedly on Monday after suffering a stroke and cardiac arrest, the Vatican said. It ended an often turbulent reign in which he repeatedly clashed with conservative traditionalists and championed the poor and marginalized, church observers said.

As the Catholic world plunged into mourning, the Vatican announced Tuesday that Pope Francis’ funeral Mass “will take place on Saturday, April 26, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. [local time] in St. Peter’s Square.”

PRESIDING OVER MASS

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Dean of the College of Cardinals, “will preside at the Mass, which will be concelebrated by Patriarchs, Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, and priests from across the globe,” the Vatican News website added.

On Tuesday, the Vatican released photographs of Francis dressed in his vestments and lying in a wooden coffin in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence, where he lived during his 12-year papacy. Swiss Guards stand on either side of the casket.

Francis made that clear in the preface he wrote on February 7 for a book in Italian by Cardinal Angelo Scola, “Archbishop Emeritus of Milan,” titled “Awaiting a New Beginning. Reflections on Old Age.”

Pope Francis stressed that in a world obsessed with outer beauty, becoming older and death “is not the end of everything, but the beginning of something” for those who believe.

“Jesus,” he said, “gives us a consoling certainty: death is not the end of everything, but the beginning of something. It is a new beginning, as the title wisely highlights, because eternal life, which those who love already begin to experience on earth within the daily tasks of life — is beginning something that will never end.”

And, “It is precisely for this reason that it is a ‘new’ beginning because we will live something we have never fully lived before: eternity,” he added.

While he was already frail himself, the late pope said that the “elderly should realize that amid the frenzy of our societies, often devoted to the ephemeral and the unhealthy taste for appearances, the wisdom of grandparents becomes a shining beacon, shedding light on uncertainty and providing direction to grandchildren, who can draw from their experience something “extra” for their daily lives.”