The funeral of Pope Francis, who passed away on Monday, 21 April 2025, at the age of 88, will take place on Saturday, 26 April, at 10:00 local time in St Peter’s Square, Rome.
Preparations underway for Pope Francis’s funeral?
His funeral will be led by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, and is expected to draw an audience of tens of thousands, including around 170 official foreign delegations.
In preparation, his body has been lying in state in an open wooden coffin inside St Peter’s Basilica since Wednesday morning. In the first day alone, over 50,000 mourners passed by to pay their final respects.
According to reports, security in Rome has been significantly heightened ahead of the funeral. More than 2,000 police officers, assisted by 400 traffic police, are on duty. The city is also deploying advanced safety measures such as anti-drone systems and no-fly zones enforced by fighter jets.
The Vatican has arranged for the pope’s burial to take place at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, one of Rome’s oldest Marian shrines. Pope Francis specifically requested to be buried “in the ground, without particular decoration,” marking a break from tradition, which usually involves multi-layered coffins and burial beneath St Peter’s Basilica.
What happens after the Pope’s funeral?
Following the funeral, the Catholic Church will enter a period of mourning known as the Novemdiales—a nine-day sequence of Masses dedicated to praying for the soul of the deceased pope.
Once the mourning period concludes, the church will begin the process of electing a new pope. This will occur in a private and highly secure conclave held at the Sistine Chapel.
Only cardinals under the age of 80 are allowed to vote. The process includes several rounds of secret ballots, and the results of each round are symbolised through smoke: black smoke means no new pope has been chosen; white smoke signals that a new pope has been elected.
Several names have emerged as possible successors, including Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Italy, Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines. However, as history has shown, the next pope may also come as a surprise.
How to watch the Pope Francis funeral live in South Africa
South Africans wishing to follow the Pope Francis funeral can watch the ceremony live from Rome on Saturday. It will be broadcast on international news channels like BBC World and Al Jazeera, which are available on local satellite platforms such as DStv.
Additionally, public broadcaster SABC may also carry a live feed of the event, either on TV or through its streaming platform, SABC+.
The service is scheduled to begin at 10:00 CET, which is the same as 10:00 SAST.