Upon hearing of Francis’ death, a stream of people began making their way toward the basilica to pay their respects.
“Even if I won’t be able to enter the Basilica, I came here with my husband to say a prayer,” Titti Lepore, 56, told NBC News, adding, “I’m Catholic, so as soon as I heard about Pope Francis’s death, I felt the need to come here.”
The Vatican on Monday laid out plans for Francis’ body, saying that it would be placed in his coffin tonight in the Chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae.
Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell will preside over “the rite of confirmation of death and the placing of the body in the coffin,” the Vatican said in a statement.
Francis’ body will then be transferred to St. Peter’s Basilica to allow his worshippers to pay their respects, which the Vatican said may take place as early as Wednesday morning.
Tributes have been pouring in from leaders around the world, with Vice President JD Vance, who met with Francis just Sunday to exchange Easter greetings, remembering the pope in a post on X.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a Facebook post that the news of the pontiff’s death “pains us deeply, because a great man and a great pastor leaves us,” while French President Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X: “From Buenos Aires to Rome, Pope Francis wanted the Church to bring joy and hope to the poorest.”
Britain’s King Charles, who met Francis in early April alongside Queen Camilla, said he recalled their meetings with “particular affection,” in a statement issued by the royal palace.
Francis’ body will be put on display in an open coffin in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, one of Christianity’s holiest sites, where most pontiffs have been buried for hundreds of years. But in accordance with his wishes, he is expected to be buried at the ancient Basilica of St. Mary Major, which lies outside the Vatican’s walls.
His successor will be chosen during a conclave, a gathering of cardinals who are charged with electing a new pope in strict seclusion at the Vatican.
Toward the end of his life, Francis battled a host of health issues that left him weakened and often forced to rely on a wheelchair or canes. Most recently, he struggled with diverticulitis and bronchitis, and at times needed aides to read his speeches because he was out of breath. He spent much of the last two months in hospital battling pneumonia.
The son of Italian emigrants to Argentina, Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires on Dec. 17, 1936.
As a young man, Bergoglio worked as a bouncer and a janitor, and trained as a chemist and a food technician before being ordained a Jesuit priest in 1969.
He rose through the ranks in Argentina and in 1998 was appointed head of the archdiocese. In 2001, Pope John Paul II named him to the Sacred College of Cardinals, which elects new popes.
In 2013, Francis succeeded retired Pope Benedict XVI as the 266th pontiff, becoming the first Jesuit and non-European to hold the church’s highest office in more than 1,000 years, leading more than 1 billion Catholics around the globe.
In Argentina, President Javier Milei recalled the legacy left by Francis as the first Argentine and Latin American to lead the Catholic Church.
“As President, as an Argentine, and, fundamentally, as a man of faith, I bid farewell to the Holy Father and stand with all of us who are today dealing with this sad news,” Milei said in a post on X.
Francis took the reins of a church tarnished by the clerical sex abuse crisis and financial scandals, and reeling from the abrupt resignation of Benedict, the first pontiff to step down in 600 years.
Instead of following in the footsteps of Benedict, a strict conservative, Francis angered many traditionalists by reaching out to gay and lesbian people, and trying to shake up the church bureaucracy.
In 2015, he became only the third pope to visit the White House and the first to address Congress, where he urged lawmakers to tackle climate change, a theme he returned to often.
In December 2023, Francis announced a radical change in Vatican policy by allowing priests to bless same-sex couples, alienating many Catholics, including in the United States.
He took on the church’s sprawling clerical child sexual abuse crisis by issuing the most extensive revision to the church’s laws in four decades, and insisted that bishops take action against clerics who sexually abuse minors and vulnerable adults.
But some critics said he did not do enough for many victims of abuse and their families. In 2019, advocates criticized Francis’ mandate that priests and nuns report clerical sex abuse to their superiors, instead of notifying law enforcement.
Francis also faced stiff resistance from archconservative American clerics when he urged people to get vaccinated against Covid. He also found himself being accused of heresy for, among other things, softening the ban on giving Communion to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.
Still, like his predecessors, Francis also held conservative clerical values. He was against abortion, saying the procedure was like “hiring a hit man to solve a problem.” He was also in favor of clerical celibacy and was opposed to ordaining women, although he was open to giving them a greater role in running the church.
CORRECTION (April 21, 2025, 10:15 a.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated how many years it had been since a pope had resigned before Benedict. He was the first pope to resign in 600 years, not 700.
Astha Rajvanshi
Chiara Sgreccia contributed.
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The papal chamberlain, or camerlengo, Irish-born Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who is also the former bishop of the Diocese of Dallas, temporarily takes over the reins of the church. But his first task is to confirm that Francis is dead.
“In this case, as in the case of the last several popes, doctors would be on hand to make the call,” Collins said. “The camerlengo is there to ensure this happens.”
There is an enduring myth, which has been accepted in some places as fact, that a pope’s death is confirmed by tapping on his forehead with a ceremonial hammer while calling out his baptismal name three times.
But Notre Dame theology professor Ulrich Lehner said, “The hammer episode is an old tale which is not mentioned in any official text.”
Tradition holds that once death is confirmed, the camerlengo announces in Latin to everyone around the deathbed that the pope has passed away.
“Vere, Franciscus mortus est,” or “Truly, Francis is dead,” Farrell would say.
But because the pope is also the bishop of Rome, it becomes the responsibility of the chief administrator of the Diocese of Rome “to announce to the city of Rome that the pope is dead,” Collins said.
“That has the effect of telling it to the world,” Collins said.
Church bells toll in St. Peter’s Square and across Rome, and the white-and-gold Vatican flags will be lowered to half-staff. Emails will be sent out to summon the cardinals to the Vatican.
While that is going on, “the camerlengo will be securing the room, taking an inventory of the items, determining whether there is a last will or testament among the pope’s effects, things like that,” Collins said. “The camerlengo also authorizes the death certificate, seals the pope’s room and posts a guard outside to secure the premises.”
Meanwhile, Francis will be clad in his funeral garments.
“Usually, for a funeral, vestments can be white or black or even purple,” Collins said. “In the case of a pope, the deceased pope will be vested in red over his white cassock. The clergy who officiate at the funeral Mass will also wear red vestments.”
In addition, the camerlengo takes control of the papal ring, known as the Fisherman’s Ring, which used to be ceremonially smashed, when the cardinals arrive to pick a new pope to symbolize the end of Francis’ papacy, the experts said.
“The original purpose of this was to prevent forgery and ensure that nobody used the papal ring to seal a false document,” Collins said.
Once a new pope is chosen, another ring will be struck bearing the name of Francis’ successor surrounding the image of St. Peter casting a fishing net.
Back in the day, the Vatican would mint coins and produce medals commemorating the Sede Vacante, or the period during which there is no pope. The money generated by the sales of such items would help pay for the papal funeral.
Collins said that’s not happening here.
“The period without a pope is not that long,” Collins said. “For example, the interregnum between John Paul II and Benedict XVI was less than three weeks. And in any event, Vatican uses the euro now.”
