An ailing Pope France has said his tomb is already prepared outside the Vatican and plans for a simpler funeral are in place, but insisted he has no intention of retiring.
The 86-year-old’s comments suggest he is set to be the first pontiff to be buried outside the Vatican in more than a century.
The pope, who turns 87 on Sunday, has shunned much of the Vatican’s pomp and privilege, and has decided to vastly simplify the elaborate funeral rites.
He disclosed plans for his funeral in an interview with Mexico’s N+ television on Tuesday to mark the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
In the interview with the network’s Vatican correspondent, Valentina Alazraki, taped before the pope presided at a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, Francis appeared to have recovered from a bout of bronchitis.
An ailing Pope France (pictured today) has said his tomb is already prepared outside the Vatican and plans for a simpler funeral are in place, but insisted he has no intention of retiring
He laughed often while discussing subjects such as his health, migration, his relationship with the late Pope Benedict XVI, and travel plans. He said his health was good but asked for prayers as he deals with the limitations of old age.
‘It is true that all journeys are now all rethought,’ Francis told N+. ‘If they’re close by, they can be done. If they’re farther away they are rethought. There are limits.’
Francis disclosed that he has been working with the Vatican’s master of ceremonies, Archbishop Diego Ravelli, to simplify the elaborate, book-long funeral rites for a pope that have been used for his predecessors.
Since his election in 2013, Francis has shunned the crimson, fur-trimmed ‘mozzetta’, or cape, and also does not wear a gold cross but has kept around his neck the same faded silver-plated one he used as archbishop of Buenos Aires.
He also has not used the plush red ‘shoes of the fisherman’ used by his predecessors. He has kept the same simple black shoes he always used and wears a plastic watch, giving others away so they could be auctioned off for charity.
Francis said that because of his devotion to Mary, the Mother of God, he has decided to be buried in Rome’s Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.
He has long emphasised his role as bishop of Rome and has a particular devotion to the icon of the Virgin Mary at the basilica located near Rome’s main train station.
He traditionally goes there to pray before and after each of his foreign trips.
Francis said that because of his devotion to Mary, the Mother of God, he has decided to be buried in Rome’s Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, seen above. Francis goes to the basilica to pray before the Salus populi Romani (‘Salvation of the people of Rome’), a Byzantine-style painting that features an image of Mary, draped in a blue robe, holding the infant Jesus
Francis goes to the basilica to pray before the Salus populi Romani (‘Salvation of the people of Rome’), a Byzantine-style painting that features an image of Mary, draped in a blue robe, holding the infant Jesus who in turn is holding a jewelled golden book.
‘It’s my great devotion,’ Francis said, adding that he had already decided he wanted to be buried nearby in the basilica. ‘The place is already prepared.’
Many popes are buried in the crypts beneath St. Peter’s Basilica.
The last pope to be buried outside the Vatican was Leo XIII, who died in 1903 and is buried in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome.
Francis has said he would be ready to resign – as Benedict did in 2013 – if his health became extremely bad.
‘I ask the Lord to say enough, at some point, but when he wants me to,’ he said.
But, he said, he also believes that papal resignations should not become the norm.
Asked about his health, he said: ‘I feel good, I feel improved.
‘Sometimes I’m told I’m not prudent because I feel like doing things and moving around. I guess those are good signs, no? I am quite well’.
Francis has already said if he retires, he would want to live outside the Vatican somewhere in Rome in a residence for retired priests.
The bronchitis forced Francis – who had part of one lung removed as a young man -to cancel a trip to Dubai this month to attend the COP28 climate summit.
He had surgery in June to repair an abdominal hernia and appears to have recovered completely from that operation.
He said he was hoping to make three trips next year, to somewhere in Polynesia, to Belgium, and to his native Argentina for his first visit there since his election in 2013.
The comments regarding his funeral came before the pope on Wednesday renewed his call for an ‘immediate’ ceasefire in Gaza and pleaded for an end to suffering for both Israelis and Palestinians.
‘I renew my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,’ the leader of the world’s more than 1.35 billion Catholics said during his Wednesday audience.
‘May this great suffering for the Israelis and the Palestinians be over,’ he said, urging the release of all Israeli hostages and the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
2023-12-14 06:04:04
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