Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, left, prays in front of the body of Pope Francis laid out in state inside his private chapel at the Vatican.
| Photo Credit: AP

Pope Francis’s funeral will be held on Saturday (April 26, 2025), as many world leaders will attend to honour the Catholic leader. The Argentine pontiff, 88, died on Monday (April 21, 2025) after a stroke, less than a month after returning home from five weeks in hospital battling double pneumonia.

Here’s what we know about the funeral of Pope Francis.

When is the funeral of Pope Francis?

Pope Francis’ funeral, which is expected to draw huge crowds, will take place at 10:00 am local time (1.30 pm IST) on April 26. The funeral date was set by cardinals meeting in a so-called “general congregation”, the first of a series of meetings which will culminate in a conclave within three weeks, where a new pope will be elected.

Also read | Many firsts of Pope Francis

Where will the funeral of Pope Francis be held?

The funeral of Pope Francis will be held in the majestic Baroque plaza in front of St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, six days after his death.

Where will Pope Francis be buried?

Pope Francis has asked to be buried in St Mary Major, a Roman basilica he was particularly attached to, rather than St Peter’s like many of his predecessors, with a simple inscription of his name in Latin, Franciscus. In his will, Pope Francis called for his tomb to be “in the ground; simple, without particular decoration, and with the sole inscription: Franciscus,’’ or Latin for Francis.

Where is Pope Francis’ body now?

Pope Francis is currently lying in state in the Santa Marta Domus in a private viewing for Vatican residents and the papal household. His body, lying in an open casket, will be taken from the chapel of the Vatican residence where he lived to St Peter’s, entering through the central door, in a grand procession on April 23, with cardinals and Latin chants. His body will lie in state for three days.

Once in St. Peter’s, his casket will not be put on an elevated bier — as was the case with past popes — but will just be placed simply facing the pews, with the Paschal candle nearby. Tens of thousands of mourners are expected to pay their respects to Pope Francis as he lies in state in St. Peter’s Basilica.

People gather in St Peter’s Square on the day of the translation of Pope Francis’ body, which will be transported inside the Basilica, at the Vatican.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

Who will attend Pope Francis’ funeral?

Numerous world leaders have announced they will travel to Rome for Pope Francis’s funeral, which is expected to draw a huge crowd in the square in front of St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. U.S. President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, will attend. Mr. Trump said in a social media post: “We look forward to being there!”

President Javier Milei of Argentina, where the pope was born in 1936, will attend, his office said. Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will attend with his wife Janja, his government said.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres will attend the funeral, his office said.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer will attend, and Prince William will also go to represent the head of state, King Charles III.

French President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ireland’s President Michael Higgins, Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, Belgium’s Prime Minister Bart De Wever, and Hungary’s President Tamas Sulyok will also attend the funeral among other European leaders.

From India, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has announced that Minister for Minorities Welfare and Non Resident Tamils Welfare S.M. Nasar, along with DMK MLA from Tiruchi (East) Inigo.S. Irudayaraj, will attend the funeral service of Pope Francis, on behalf of Tamil Nadu government.

Who won’t attend Pope Francis’ funeral?

Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who is subject to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant over his invasion of Ukraine, will not attend the funeral of Pope Francis, the Kremlin said.

The Netherlands’ King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima — who also has Argentine nationality — will not make the trip due to the king’s birthday celebrations despite being “deeply moved” by Francis’s passing, the royal family said.

When will the next successor of Pope Francis be decided?

The cardinals haven’t set a date for the conclave to elect Pope Francis’ successor, but the current norms suggest it cannot begin before May 6. There is no clear frontrunner to succeed Francis, although British bookmakers have singled out Luis Antonio Tagle, a reformer from the Philippines, and Pietro Parolin, from Italy, as early favourites.

In the meantime, in the period known as the “sede vacante” (vacant seat) for the global Catholic Church, a cardinal known as the camerlengo (chamberlain), Irish-American Kevin Farrell, is in charge of ordinary affairs. Three cardinals were chosen to help the camerlengo, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, administer the Vatican during the “interregnum” period before the election of a new pope.

LAO CAI: Nguyen Thi Kim’s small verdant community in northern Vietnam no longer exists, wiped away in a landslide triggered by Typhoon Yagi’s devastating heavy rains last year.
She and dozens of survivors have been relocated to a site that authorities hope will withstand future climate change-linked disasters, with stronger homes, drainage canals and a gentler topography that lessens landslide risks.
It is an example of the challenges communities around the world face in adapting to climate change, including more intense rains and flash floods like those Typhoon Yagi brought last September.
Kim lost 14 relatives and her traditional timber stilt home when Yagi’s rains unleashed a landslide that engulfed much of Lang Nu village in mountainous Lao Cai province.
The storm was the strongest to hit Vietnam in decades, killing at least 320 people in the country and causing an estimated $1.6 billion in economic losses.
It is unlikely to be an outlier though, with research last year showing climate change is causing typhoons in the region to intensify faster and last longer over land.
Climate change, caused largely by burning fossil fuels, impacts typhoons in multiple ways: a warmer atmosphere holds more water, making for heavier rains, and warmer oceans also help fuel tropical storms.
Kim remains traumatised by the landslide.
She says everything is painful, especially the memory of the moment a torrent of mud swept away her and her two-year-old daughter.
“This disaster was too big for us all,” she said recalling the moment the pair were pulled from the mud hours later.
“I still cannot talk about it without crying. I can’t forget,” the 28-year-old told AFP.
‘We need to change’
Yagi hit Vietnam with winds in excess of 149 kilometres (92 miles) per hour and brought a deluge of rain that caused destructive flooding in parts of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.
In Lang Nu, 67 residents were killed, and authorities vowed to rebuild the homes of survivors in a safe spot.
By December, 40 new houses were ready at a site around two kilometres away.
It was chosen for its elevation, which should be less impacted by adjacent streams, and its relatively gentle slope gradient.
“Predicting absolute safety in geology is actually very difficult,” said Tran Thanh Hai, rector of Hanoi University of Geology and Mining, who was involved in choosing a new site.
But the site is secure, “to the best of our knowledge and understanding”.
Lao Cai is one of Vietnam’s poorest areas, with little money for expensive warning systems.
However, a simple drainage system runs through the new community, diverting water away from the slope.
This should reduce soil saturation and the chances of another landslide, scientists who worked on the site told AFP.
The village’s new homes are all built of sturdier concrete, rather than traditional wood.
“We want to follow our traditions, but if it’s not safe any longer, we need to change,” Kim said, staring out at the expanse of mud and rock where her old village once stood.
Months later it remains frozen in time, strewn with children’s toys, kitchen pans and motorcycle helmets caught up in the landslide.
‘Safest ground for us’
Like Kim, 41-year-old Hoang Thi Bay now lives in the new village in a modern stilt house with steel structural beams.
Her roof, once made of palm leaves, is now corrugated iron and her doors are aluminium glass.
She survived the landslide by clinging desperately to the single concrete pillar in her old home as a wall of mud and rocks swept her neighbourhood away.
“I still wake up in the night obsessing over what happened,” she told AFP.
“Our old house was bigger and nicer, with gardens and fields. But I sleep here in the new house and I feel much safer,” she said.
Even at the new site, home to around 70 people, there are risks, warned Hai.
Development that changes the slope’s gradient, or construction of dams or reservoirs in the area could make the region more landslide-prone, he said.
Building more houses or new roads in the immediate area, or losing protective forest cover that holds earth in place, could also make the site unsafe, added Do Minh Duc, a professor at the Institute of Geotechnics and Environment at the Vietnam National University in Hanoi.
Yagi wiped out large areas of mature natural forest in Lao Cai and while private companies have donated trees for planting, it is unclear whether they can provide much protection.
“In terms of landslide prevention, the only forest that can have good (protective) effects is rainforest with a very high density of trees, so-called primary forest,” explained Duc, an expert on disaster risk maps who also helped choose the new site.
Leaving the old community was hard for Kim, whose family had lived and farmed there for nearly half a century.
But she is grateful that she and other survivors have a second chance.
“I believe this is the safest ground for us.”