Cardinals to convene for decision on start of conclave
Thousands of mourners queue to visit Pope Francis’s tomb at the Basilica of St Mary Major, as the process of finding his successor begins.
As thousands of mourners queued to visit Pope Francis’s tomb yesterday (Sunday), attention among cardinals shifted to preparations for the conclave, the secretive process that will choose the new head of the Catholic Church.
Francis died on Easter Monday, aged 88, after suffering a stroke and cardiac arrest less than a month after his discharge from a 38-day stay in hospital with double pneumonia.
An estimated 250,000 people attended his funeral in St Peter’s Square on Saturday, among them a line-up of world leaders including President Trump, President Zelensky and Sir Keir Starmer.
The coffin was driven through Rome’s streets on a converted “popemobile”, flanked by crowds estimated at 150,000, to the Basilica of St Mary Major, where it was interred in a private ceremony on Saturday afternoon.
Photographs released by the Vatican yesterday (Sunday) showed a simple marble slab engraved with the Latin name Franciscus.
A reproduction of the plain cross he once wore hangs above the burial niche. A single white rose was placed on the tomb.
Francis was the eighth pope to be buried at Saint Mary Major, one of Rome’s four major papal basilicas. He would frequently go there, bearing roses, before and after trips he made abroad. He would pray before the Salus Populi Romani, a Byzantine icon of the Virgin Mary painted on cedarwood and believed to have been taken to the basilica by Pope Gregory I in AD590.
Hundreds of mourners were queuing outside the basilica before dawn yesterday (Sunday) and there were several thousand people in the line shortly before noon.
Maria Brzezinska, a Polish pilgrim, said after paying her respects: “I feel like it’s exactly in the way of the Pope. He was simple, and so is his place now.”
The Vatican said that 60,000 people had visited the tomb by yesterday (Sunday) afternoon. Many queued for two hours before entering, according to Italian media.
Cardinals were expected to reconvene at 9am today (Monday) in their daily general congregations – the meetings in the Synod Hall that manage urgent Vatican business during the vacancy of the papal seat. The gatherings ran from Tuesday to Friday last week before pausing for the funeral. They have so far focused on immediate governance, including setting the funeral date, scheduling nine days of mourning and suspending planned beatifications. Their focus will now shift towards selecting Francis’s successor.
High on their agenda will be deciding whether Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who was stripped of his rights as a cardinal by Francis after a conviction in 2023 for financial crimes, should be permitted to vote.
La Repubblica reported that cardinals could select the conclave date during today’s (Monday’s) general congregation. Asked if a date would be set today (Monday), Matteo Bruni, the Vatican’s spokesman, told The Times: “We have given no information concerning that decision whatsoever.”
Vatican rules stipulate that a conclave must begin between 15 and 20 days after a pope’s death or resignation. Of the 252 serving cardinals, 135 are under the age of 80 and thus eligible to vote. Most of them were appointed by Francis.
Opinions among senior figures vary over how the conclave will unfold. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the Archbishop of Munich and Freising and a member of the “C9” Council of Cardinals appointed by Francis, told reporters shortly after the funeral that he believed the process would be swift, lasting “just a few days”.
He added: “Everything is open. It is not a question of language, country or culture. It’s about the person. It’s not even a question of whether he is conservative or progressive. It is a question of credibility and dialogue.”
His comments contrasted with those of Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, the Archbishop of Cologne, who told the German agency DPA last week that he expected a “longer, more complex conclave” because of the “heterogeneous” character of the electors.
Francis was elected in 2013 in about 24 hours, but papal elections can take far longer. The longest conclave, that of Pope Gregory X in the 13th century, took two years and nine months to conclude after fierce divisions between French and Italian cardinals.
Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, more than 110 cardinals wearing black robes and red sashes filed into Saint Mary Major to pay their respects to Francis’s tomb and pray before the Salus Populi Romani icon. A Vespers service was then held in the basilica.
The Times
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