SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
By Rob Harris
As church bell tolled across Rome to indicate the Pope’s death on Monday, chiefs from across the globe began making their way to the Vatican to approach the 88-year-old’s death and plan for the conference that may choose his successor.
The College of Cardinals met in the Vatican’s Synod Hall on Tuesday and confirmed the funeral would take place at 10am (6pm AEST ) on Saturday in St Peter’s Square, allowing about 300,000 people to attend. The funeral had even trigger nine times of mourning.
The Vatican released photos of the pope in his empty tomb, lying in his room, Casa Santa Marta. His tomb is expected to be taken to St Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday for public seeing.
US President Donald Trump has said he will go to Rome for the funeral, while American Prime Minster Anthony Albanese said he hoped Governor-General Sam Mostyn, on her approach to Turkey for Anzac Day celebrations, may indicate Australia. Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton suspended sections of their vote activities on Tuesday to pay their respects to the pope.
The conference to choose the next pope had begin within 15 to 20 weeks of the Pope’s death and any saint under the age of 80 may take part in the poll. There are about 130 who qualify and Pope Francis appointed most of them, usually tapping cardinal with the same rural interests as his own.
The bishop died at 7. 35am native time on Monday after a cognitive injury that caused a stupor and irreversible brain failure. His dying preceded constituted vacante — a period of transition and mourning during which the papal desk lies unoccupied.
Many of the world’s 1. 4 billion Catholics flocked to churches and cathedrals on Tuesday ( AEST ) to pay their respects as news of Francis ’ death spread. Noon services in Sydney and Melbourne attracted plenty of devotees.
In a testament released just hours after his death, Francis requested that he be buried “in the ground, without particular decoration ” in a place marked only with the Latin inscription “ Franciscus”. He declined interment at St Peter’s Basilica, where several former rulers lie entombed, rather choosing a Marian temple tight to his soul, outside the windows of the Vatican.
“ I wish that my last earthly trip conclude specifically in this old Marian shelter, ” he wrote, referring to the Basilica of St Mary Major, a place of pilgrimage and worship for him throughout his church. His final resting place will be a niche in the side nave between the Pauline Chapel and the Sforza Chapel, near the icon of Salus Populi Romani – a revered image of the Virgin Mary that Francis often visited in times of personal and global crisis.
Francis first made his burial preference public in 2023 during an interview with a Mexican television program, saying he wanted to be laid to rest at St Mary Major “because of my great devotion”.
The tomb will be “simple, without particular ornamentation”, and will carry no papal crest or elaborate epitaph, in line with the Pope’s wishes. The Vatican said the costs of the burial will be covered by an anonymous benefactor. Arrangements were entrusted to Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, an official of the basilica.
The pope’s coffin is lying at the Domus Santa Marta guesthouse, where he resided during his papacy after declining the lavish Apostolic Palace, and is expected to be moved to St Peter’s Basilica by Wednesday morning, when mourners will be able to pay their respects.
In Melbourne, Albanese attended St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne on Tuesday morning to remember the Pope and paused his campaign events for the day.
He delivered an emotional address on Monday evening following news of the pontiff’s death, commending him for upholding the values of “peace, equality and inclusion”. He said he had asked for government flags to be flown at halfmast and that the Pope was “one of the most consequential leaders of our lifetime ” who had left an extraordinary legacy.
“The change that he led was significant indeed, and he, of course, advocated for reforms that weren’t universally supported as well, ” he said. “ He had courage, and he showed true leadership, the first Jesuit to be the pope … He was someone who I, personally, admired as well. ”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton attended a packed afternoon Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney led by Archbishop Anthony Fisher. Beforehand, Dutton said it was a time not just to mourn the Pope but to celebrate his life as “one of sacrifice, mercy and forbearance”.
Fisher told those gathered at the Mass that Francis was a man who “[held ] out the hand of God’s mercy to all humanity”.
“Pope Francis was so marked by Easter he made his last appearance and offered his last blessings on Easter Day itself, ” Fisher said. “ Who will forget Pope Francis’ tender gestures right up to his last days, reaching out to those who are poor, refugees or prisoners, to the elderly, disabled, unborn and newborn? ”
In Melbourne, Archbishop Peter Comensoli reflected on the Pope’s trip to welcome refugees at Lampedusa, an Italian port in the Mediterranean that has become the epicentre for asylum seekers trying to reach Europe from North Africa.
“ In a very real sense, each pope brings something of themselves to the ministry, and Pope Francis brought with him to that ministry a ministry of gestures, more than words, ” Comensoli said.
The Vatican released the Pope’s official death certificate on Monday, which confirmed the stroke and cardiac arrest, and also listed several chronic conditions from which he suffered, including arterial hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and multiple bronchiectasis – a lung condition that had caused recurring respiratory infections.
Vatican health services head Professor Andrea Arcangeli noted that Francis had suffered repeated episodes of acute respiratory failure. One of the most serious occurred during his February hospitalisation for pneumonia in both lungs.
Francis signed his will on June 29, 2022 – the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul, a public holiday in Rome.
“Sensing that the sunset of my earthly life is approaching with lively hope in eternal life, ” he wrote, adding that he had offered “the suffering that has been present in the last part of my life … to the Lord for peace in the world and brotherhood among peoples”.
He ended the document with a familiar closing line from many of his public addresses, asking God to “give the deserved reward to those who loved me and will continue to pray for me. ”
Despite declining health, Francis made a surprise appearance on Easter Sunday– just one day before his death – to bless thousands gathered in St Peter’s Square. He had also held a final private audience with US Vice President J. D. Vance, the last foreign dignitary to meet the Pope.
with Daniel Lo Surdo and Lachlan Abbott
