Pope Francis revised the funeral rites to be used after his death, simplifying the rituals to allow burial outside the Vatican in accordance with his wishes, according to AP News.
Francis approved the updated liturgical book on 29 April to replace the previous edition, last published in 2000. Francis turns 88 in December, and despite some health and mobility problems, he appears to be in great shape.
The Vatican was to prepare the funeral of the first retired pope in 600 years, and a few months later Francis said he was working with the Vatican’s master of liturgical ceremonies, Monsignor Diego Ravelli, to revise papal funeral rites to simplify them.
In a 2023 interview with a Mexican television station, Francis also said that he had decided he would be buried at the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica in Rome rather than in the grottoes under St Peter’s Basilica, where most popes were buried. His desire to be buried there underscores his veneration of the icon of the Virgin Mary, the Salus populi Romani (Salvation of the people of Rome).
It’s my great devotion. The place is already prepared.
Ravelli said the new reform simplified funeral rites, including removing the requirement that the Pope be placed on a raised dais in St Peter’s Basilica for all to see. Instead, he will be in plain sight in a simple coffin, with burial no longer requiring the traditional three coffins of cyprus, lead and oak.
