World bids farewell to Pope Francis, awaits conclave’s choice

Preparations for the funeral of Pope Francis are underway after the Holy Father died from a cerebral stroke early Monday – as are those for the secretive election to choose his successor.

The funeral date has been set for Saturday. Tens of thousands attended the funeral of Francis’ predecessor, Benedict XVI, in 2022, who had retired in 2013. When John Paul II died in 2005, some four million people paid their respects. This time, leaders from around the globe are expected to attend, including Donald Trump, who is set to become the first sitting US president to attend a papal funeral since 2005.

Francis will be dressed in red regalia, and his ring of office will be ceremonially destroyed, but much of the proceedings will break from tradition: He ordered that he be laid to rest in a simple coffin and interred in Santa Maria Maggiore, not the Vatican grottoes.

Choosing a successor. Within 20 days, Catholic cardinals under the age of 80 (135 out of 252) will gather in the Sistine Chapel to choose the next pope. The conclave – from a Latin root meaning “with keys” – is shut off from the wider world, a measure deemed necessary after medieval interregna lasted months or years due to secular political meddling.

There are no guarantees, but the electoral math points to a potentially short contest: 108 of the 135 eligible elector cardinals were appointed by Francis and may quickly assemble the necessary two-thirds consensus around a successor with similarly progressive values.