3 Coffins Won't Be Required When Pope Francis Dies

Francis will get the funeral 'of a shepherd ... and not of a powerful man of this world'
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Nov 20, 2024 4:41 PM CST
Pope Simplifies Funeral Rites for Popes
Pope Francis waves as he leaves after his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, Nov.20, 2024.   (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis has revised the funeral rites that will be used when he dies, simplifying the rituals to emphasize his role as a mere bishop and allowing for burial outside the Vatican in keeping with his wishes. The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano on Wednesday published details of the updated liturgical book, which Francis approved in April.

  • Francis turns 88 in December and, despite some health and mobility problems, appears in fine form, the AP reports. On Wednesday, he presided over a spirited general audience that featured children who spontaneously rushed the stage.

  • While popes often tinker with the rules regulating the conclave that will elect their successor, a revision of the papal funeral rites became necessary after Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI died on Dec. 31, 2022. The Vatican had to work out 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, Monsignor Diego Ravelli, to overhaul the papal funeral rites to simplify them.
  • Ravelli told L'Osservatore Romano that the new reform simplifies the funeral rites, including eliminating the requirement that the pope be placed on an elevated bier in St. Peter's Basilica for public viewing. Rather, he will be on view in a simple coffin, and the burial no longer requires the traditional three coffins of cypress, lead, and oak.
  • The simplification, Ravelli said, is meant "to emphasize even more that the Roman Pontiff's funeral is that of a shepherd and disciple of Christ and not of a powerful man of this world."
  • In a 2023 interview, Francis revealed that he had decided he would be buried in Santa Maria Maggiore basilica in Rome, not in the grottoes underneath St. Peter's Basilica where most popes are buried.
(More Pope Francis stories.)

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