By Joshua McElwee
Pope Francis, who has shunned a lot of the pomp and privilege of main the worldwide Catholic Church, has determined {that a} easy wood casket will suffice when the time comes for his funeral.
In a brand new formal ceremony printed on Wednesday, the Vatican mentioned Francis will forego a centuries-old follow of burying the late pope in three interlocking caskets manufactured from cypress, lead and oak. As an alternative, Francis will likely be buried in a single, zinc-lined wood coffin.
The late pope can even not be placed on show atop a raised platform, or catafalque, in St. Peter’s Basilica for guests in Rome to view, as was the case with earlier popes.
Guests will nonetheless be welcome to pay their respects, however Francis’ physique will likely be left contained in the casket, with the lid off.
Francis, who turns 88 on Dec. 17, has suffered occasional bouts of sick well being lately, however has appeared in tremendous type in current months.
He now makes use of a wheelchair attributable to knee and again ache, however made two demanding international journeys in September and hosted a significant, month-long summit of Catholic leaders on the Vatican in October.
The pope mentioned final 12 months he needed to simplify the frilly, book-long funeral rites which were used for his predecessors.
Francis additionally introduced then that he would be the first pope to be buried outdoors the Vatican in additional than a century.
As an alternative of being interred with some 91 different late popes in St. Peter’s Basilica, Francis mentioned he desires to be buried at Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Main, which is devoted to Mary, the Mom of God.
St. Mary’s is the church the place Francis historically goes to wish earlier than and after every of his international journeys.
The final pope to be buried outdoors the Vatican was Leo XIII, who died in 1903 and is buried in Rome’s Basilica of St. John Lateran.
Three caskets had historically been used for burying popes to create an hermetic seal across the late pontiff’s physique. In addition they allowed for objects, comparable to cash or papers issued by the pope throughout his reign, to be buried with the physique.
This text was produced by Reuters information company. It has not been edited by World South World.
