Pope Francis death as it happened: PM suspends election campaign, Trump to attend funeral after leader of Catholic Church dies aged 88

Thank you for reading our rolling coverage following the death of Pope Francis. Here’s what you need to know this evening.

• The Vatican announced the death of the 88-year-old Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, yesterday.
• The cause of Francis’ death was a cerebral stroke that led to a coma and irreversible heart failure, according to his death certificate, which has been published by the Vatican.
• The Pope’s funeral will take place from 10am on Saturday local time (6pm AEST). Cardinals gathered in Rome today to finalise the funeral plans. The Pope’s body will be moved to St Peter’s Basilica for public viewing ahead of the funeral.
• The conclave meeting, during which the next pope will be elected, will take place in about two weeks.
• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is Catholic, called the Pope “one of the most consequential leaders in our lifetime” in an emotional address.
• Opposition Leader Peter Dutton paid tribute to the Pope’s life as “one of sacrifice, mercy and forbearance” after attending Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney.
• Both leaders paused their election campaigns today, but this evening’s scheduled debate is expected to go ahead.

The Vatican has released the first images of Pope Francis following his death.

The photos show the Pope’s body laid out in a casket within the chapel of Francis’s residence at the Vatican.

His body will be transferred to St Peter’s Basilica in the coming days so the public can pay their respects.

Pope Francis’s body is laid out inside his private chapel at the Vatican.Credit: AP

Cardinal Camerlengo Kevin Joseph Farrell, centre, performing the ceremonial aspersion of the body of Pope Francis with holy water as part of the final rites.Credit: AP

With AP

It’s 9am in Rome, when the cardinals summoned to the Vatican from across the world after the death of Pope Francis were expected to begin their first meeting.

The gathered clerics will attend to the urgent matter of when the Pope’s body will be taken to St Peter’s Basilica for public viewing. The transfer could happen as early as Wednesday morning, local time (tomorrow evening in Australia).

Crowds gather at St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City following the announcement of Pope Francis’ death.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

They’ll also choose a date for the funeral, which will probably take place between Friday and Sunday in St Peter’s Square, and begin discussing the conclave meeting during which they will elect Pope Francis’s successor.

For students at St Monica’s Primary School in Melbourne’s inner north-west, losing Pope Francis is like losing a grandparent figure.

“There’s always sadness when someone special in our life dies,” said principal Peter Moore.

Saint Monica’s Primary School students Jenson Lambeth, 11, and Evie Bonnici, 11, light candles in Moonee Ponds, Melbourne, for Pope Francis.Credit: Paul Jeffers

Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools runs about 300 primary and secondary schools across greater Melbourne, with more than 18,000 staff and 118,000 students.

MACS executive director Dr Edward Simons said schools held special services this morning, where thousands of students prayed and lit candles to honour the pontiff, who was passionate about education.

“He has inspired every teacher with his commitment to the human dignity of each person, and the rights of every child to find love and freedom — and to the invitation for each of us to grow and flourish in wisdom,” Simons said.

Victoria-wide, one in five students attends a Catholic school.

Australia-based Cardinal Mykola Bychok is travelling to Rome to participate in the funeral rites for Pope Francis and vote in the conclave meeting that will elect his successor.

Bychok is Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic and at 45 is the world’s youngest cardinal. He serves a Ukrainian Catholic church called the Eparchy of Saints Peter and Paul of Melbourne.

Cardinal Mykola Bychok is en route to Rome to elect the next pope.Credit: Eddie Jim

Ukrainian-born Bychok joined the Melbourne church in 2020 and was appointed to the College of Cardinals in December last year. He interpreted his surprise elevation to the college as a message of support for Ukraine from the Vatican amid the Russian invasion of his homeland.

In a statement yesterday, the cardinal asked Catholics to pray “that the Holy Spirit may enlighten our hearts and minds that we may choose a worthy candidate as the 267th Bishop of Rome and Successor of Saint Peter”.

Bychok wrote of his sadness at “the death of a much-loved father”. Bychok said he had asked Pope Francis to help free stolen Ukrainian children and to pray for his home country.

I am grateful for the late Holy Father’s frequent appeals for a just peace in Ukraine and for the efforts of the Holy See that he oversaw, known and secret, that in some way helped bring relief to the imprisoned and suffering.

The Holy Father was a strong defender of life and the dignity of every person. He worked for the healing of divisions between East and West and for a greater understanding of other faiths, building on that which we have in common rather than our differences.

Building on the work of his illustrious predecessor Benedict XVI of blessed memory, Pope Francis apologised to survivors of abuse and set in place simpler procedures to deal with perpetrators. He began to implement a culture of safeguarding for the most vulnerable. Work that must continue into the future.

As many have noted throughout the day, Pope Francis was a Catholic reformer who was outspoken on a whole range of topics.

Here is a taste of his personal views.

Chinese-Australian artist Jiawei Shen, a Red Guard in the Chinese Cultural Revolution, remembers an elderly Catholic woman weeping as his comrades pillaged her church.

Shen next visited a Catholic Church decades later in 2014, when he met Pope Francis at the Vatican to unveil his new artwork – the first officially sanctioned portrait of the pontiff.

Former Sutherland Shire councillor Byron Hurst, a retired Catholic school art teacher, recalled the portrait came about from a chance meeting he had with John McCarthy, Australia’s then-ambassador to the Holy See, in 2013. Hurst noticed McCarthy had a print of his friend Shen’s famed portrait of Mary MacKillop on his wall. Shen came to Australia as a refugee and later moved to Bundeena in Sydney’s south.

Bundeena artist Jiawei Shen with Pope Francis.

“John suggested I recruit Jaiwei to do the first papal portrait as a gift from the Australian people; Jaiwei agreed,” Hurst said earlier today.

Hurst travelled with Shen and an Australian government delegation to present the painting to Pope Francis.

“We asked him to pray for us. He replied ‘fine’, but said he was the one needing the prayers in the job ahead of him.

“He loved the portrait and it was hung in the Casina Pio IV building where [Vatican Secretary of State Pietro] Parolin conducts the Vatican diplomacy,” Hurst said.

Shen has said the portrait, which depicts the Pope surrounded by doves and a large crowd, was inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi and Catholic faithful around the globe.

He said he thought of the weeping woman when he was at the Vatican in 2014.

“I don’t have any real religion, but I believe in the power of love and forgiveness.”

The central pews at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne were filled on Tuesday afternoon as more than 300 people gathered to mark Pope Francis’ death.

Victorian Minister for Children Lizzie Blandthorn was among the crowd, which included many who don’t usually come to a CBD service.

Kathryn O’Connor normally attends mass at St Dominic’s Catholic Church in Camberwell, but had an appointment in the city on Tuesday, so decided to attend the 1pm service at St Patrick’s.

Eastern suburbs resident Kathryn O’Connor. Credit: Justin McManus

“I think he [Pope Francis] was a very holy man, and he was very much a people’s person,” O’Connor said.

George Willmott visited the church with friends Jack Tweedie and Angus Grant before mass.

“As a non-practising Catholic from a Catholic family, I find that what the church is doing is important to me culturally,” Willmott said.

From left: Angus Grant of Fitzroy North, George Willmott of Windsor and Jack Tweedie of Brunswick.Credit: Lachlan Abbott

“And also, I think it’s a significant influence on the world. So all the good that Pope Francis has done over the last decade has been significant for the church moving in a good direction after issues that have pushed my family away from the church.

“So to see Pope Francis die has been quite sad. I wanted to go somewhere to show some respect.”

Tweedie added: “I think there’s an interesting ceremony, as well, that doesn’t happen very often that is happening currently all around the world. Having the opportunity to come and be a part of that is valuable and significant.”

Peter Dutton has paid tribute to Pope Francis as a Catholic leader who drove change within the church but never forgot his roots.

On the steps of St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney where he attended Mass on Tuesday, the opposition leader said his thoughts were with Catholics across the country, but it was a time not just to mourn, but to celebrate the Pope’s life as “one of sacrifice, mercy and forbearance”.

“It’s appropriate there’s been a pause in the campaign for today”, he said in brief remarks ahead of the upcoming leaders’ debate – which is still due to go ahead tonight.

In Melbourne, a few hundred churchgoers have gathered inside the cavernous St Patrick’s Cathedral for afternoon mass following the Pope’s death.

Archbishop Peter Comensoli started the 1pm AEST service by thanking the crowd for the good turnout. A portrait of Pope Francis is on display at the foot of the church’s altar.

Archbishop Peter Comensoli speaks in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne. Credit: Justin McManus

Comensoli flagged that he’d have more to say at a special service to mark the Pope’s death next Monday, but today remembered the late pontiff as a man who cared for the needy.

As an example, he mentioned the Pope’s trip to welcome refugees at Lampadusa, an Italian port in the Mediterranean that has become the epicentre for asylum seekers trying to reach Europe from North Africa over the last decade.

“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 Pope’s portrait at the foot of the altar.Credit: Justin McManus