Funeral to take place on Saturday, the Vatican confirms
The Vatican has just confirmed that Pope Francis’s funeral will be held on Saturday at 10am local time, Reuters reported.
According to a short statement, the funeral liturgy in St Peter’s square will be presided by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the College of Cardinals.
Following the liturgy, the coffin will be taken into St Peter’s Basilica, and then to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore for burial, as requested by Francis.
Key events
The Prince of Wales is to attend the Pope’s funeral on behalf of the King, Kensington Palace has announced.
Heir to the throne William, a future head of the Church of England, will represent his father by travelling to Vatican City for Pope Francis’s funeral mass in St Peter’s Square on Saturday.
The decision is in keeping with modern tradition and will be seen as a major milestone in William’s role as a global statesman and future king.
Charles as the Prince of Wales went to Pope John Paul II’s funeral, representing his mother the late Queen, in 2005.
Bethan McKernan
The first time he spoke to Pope Francis during the pontiff’s nightly calls to the Holy Family Catholic church in Gaza City, the congregant George Antone, 44, found himself at a loss for words.
It was October 2023, a few weeks after Hamas ignited a devastating war in the Gaza Strip by attacking Israel. The Palestinian territory’s tiny Christian community had taken shelter in the strip’s three churches, but that didn’t mean they were safe. An Israeli airstrike had just hit the Greek Orthodox church, killing 18 people; soon, snipers and bombs would also kill civilians at the Holy Family.
“I was so shy when Father Yousef handed me the phone, and there was his holiness on the screen looking at me. I thought, ‘Am I dreaming, what do I talk to him about?’ He was smiling and sweet, he asked me about what I’d had to eat that day, about my family,” Antone said.
“We spoke about everything. He got to know all of us … Despite everything on his shoulders in this world he cared about us in Gaza. It feels like we have lost our father.”
Argentina-born Pope Francis is being honoured at his local home town football club in Buenos Aires, San Lorenzo de Almagro, where the football-loving head of the Roman Catholic church remained a member during his 12-year papacy.
Fans from the first-tier Primera Division club started gathering from Monday at the club’s chapel to the south-west of the Argentine capital to bid farewell to their best-known member.
“The pope leaves an unbreakable legacy,” San Lorenzo club president Marcelo Moretti told Reuters. “For all San Lorenzo fans, he was a source of great pride. It is a very sad day.”
At the chapel fans lit candles near a statue of Francis adorned with the team’s red and navy blue colours.
San Lorenzo fans took to social media on news of the pope’s death to point out that his club membership number – 88235N-0 – coincided exactly with his age and the time of death.
“He died at 88 years old, at 2:35am (in Buenos Aires, 5.35 GMT) and was member 88235. It really caught my attention,” wrote one San Lorenzo fan on X.
The club confirmed the pope’s membership number to Reuters.
Jakub Krupa
… and on that note, it’s a wrap from me, Jakub Krupa, but I leave you with Tom Ambrose who will guide you through the afternoon and bring you all the latest updates from the Vatican.
Details of lying in state confirmed
People will be able to pay their final respects to Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica from Wednesday through Friday, the Vatican said in a statement reported by Reuters.
Catholic faithful and the general public will be able to visit:
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from 11:00 am (0900 GMT) to midnight on Wednesday,
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7:00 am to midnight on Thursday,
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and 7:00 am to 7:00 pm on Friday.
The Vatican has now published a booklet for tomorrow morning’s “translation of the coffin,” the process of moving it from Santa Marta to St Peter’s Basilica, with all relevant texts.
Here is a taster of what to expect in remarks to be delivered by Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, Camerlengo of the church:
Dear brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow, we now accompany the mortal remains of our Pope Francis to the Vatican Basilica, where he often exercised his ministry as Bishop of the Church which is in Rome and as Pastor of the universal Church.
As we now leave this home, let us thank the Lord for the countless gifts that he bestowed on the Christian people through his servant, Pope Francis.
Let us ask him, in his mercy and kindness, to grant the late Pope an eternal home in the kingdom of heaven, and to comfort with celestial hope the papal family, the Church in Rome and the faithful throughout the world.
You can access the full document here.
Child sexual abuse scandal cast long shadow over Francis’s papacy – analysis
Harriet Sherwood
In 2002, the Boston Globe published a series of articles exposing the scale of child sexual abuse in the local Catholic church. It shone a spotlight – the title of a later movie based on the investigation – on the church’s dark shameful secrets.
Eleven years later, Francis became pope. Wave after wave of abuse revelations continued to crash at the Vatican’s doors amid mounting anger and revulsion among the faithful and beyond. The issue threatened to derail Francis’s papacy and dominate his trips abroad. He was slow to grasp the scale and systemic nature of the issue and apparently reluctant to take firm action to deal with abusers and those who covered up abuse.
Within hours of Francis’s death on Monday, survivors of clerical sexual abuse sounded a discordant note amid the lavish tributes. They said the pope failed to fundamentally change the culture of deference that allowed abusers to flourish and failed to deliver decisive action. It was the “tragedy of his papacy”, said one organisation.
Members of the conclave that will meet in the coming days to choose a successor to Francis will know survivors will be watching closely.
“The next pope must act where Pope Francis did not,” said Ending Clergy Abuse group. “He must implement a universal zero-tolerance policy – one that holds clergy fully accountable for abuse and its concealment. He must reject secrecy and complicity and place the protection of children and vulnerable adults at the heart of the church’s mission.”
Shaun Dougherty, the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests’s president, said: “We cannot afford another papacy that makes promises but fails to deliver real protection for children and justice for survivors.”
Pope Francis mourners – photos of the day
People around the world are mourning the death of Pope Francis, and our picture editors picked some of the best photos for you in their daily selection.
Women show portraits of the late Pope Francis as they wait to be allowed in to the apostolic nunciature to offer their condolences Photograph: Dita Alangkara/AP
People pray as they pay their respects near a portrait of Pope Francis displayed inside Myeongdong Cathedral Photograph: Getty Images
See their picks in full here:
Catholics across the world from the Vatican to Gaza pay tribute to Pope Francis – video
Our video team has put together this clip showing reactions from Catholics across the world as they pay tribute to Pope Francis.
Jakub Krupa
You’re now up to date on other key developments across Europe.
Back to the Vatican for the latest there.
Norwegian queen leaves hospital after breathing problems
Queen Sonja of Norway was discharged from an Oslo hospital on Tuesday after being admitted the previous evening for breathing difficulties, the royal palace said.
“Her Majesty the Queen has been discharged from Oslo university hospital,” the palace said.
“The Queen was admitted due to shortness of breath. Examinations show that the situation has normalised,” it said, adding that she would be on sick leave for the rest of the week.
Sonja, 87, had been transported by medical helicopter from the royal chalet in Sikkilsdalen, where she and King Harald – Europe’s oldest reigning monarch at 88 – were spending the Easter holidays.
France dismisses Putin’s Easter truce as ‘marketing operation’
French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot called Russian president Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine Easter truce announcement “a marketing operation” aimed at mollifying US leader Donald Trump, AFP reported.
“The Easter truce that he announced somewhat unexpectedly was a marketing operation, a charm operation aimed at preventing President Trump from becoming impatient and angry,” Barrot told the FranceInfo broadcaster, a day after Russia launched aerial attacks on Ukraine in an abrupt end to the fragile Easter truce.
The new attacks cast doubt on Trump’s hopes for a broader ceasefire between the two sides, after he said a “deal” could be struck this week.
On Wednesday, key representatives from the US, Ukraine, Britain and France will meet for further talks on Ukraine in London.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said it was open to direct talks with Ukraine but declined to back Kyiv’s proposal to extend the Easter ceasefire.
Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson told reporters in Moscow on Tuesday that there were no concrete plans for negotiations on halting strikes against civilian targets, but that the Russian president was willing to discuss this directly with Ukraine if Kyiv removed “certain obstacles”.
For more updates on Ukraine, you can follow our Ukraine live blog here:
Spain to meet 2% GDP goal on defence spending this year
Spain will meet Nato’s target of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defence this year, much earlier than its previous self-imposed deadline of 2029, prime minister Pedro Sánchez said.
Reuters reported that Spain, which spent just 1.3% on defence in 2024, the lowest among Nato members, and other European countries are under pressure from US president Donald Trump, who is pushing Nato allies to lift military spending to as high as 5% and is reluctant to continue funding Kyiv in the war in Ukraine.
Sanchez said he would meet the goal through additional spending of €10.47bn, with a focus on increasing the size of its military, telecommunications, cybersecurity and procurement of military equipment.
“This plan will help us meet (the target) in record time,” Sanchez said. “Spain will contribute to defending Europe.“
Reuters noted that Italy said last week it will also meet Nato’s 2% target this year through a series of accounting changes.
Jakub Krupa
Let’s take a brief detour to bring you the latest news from around Europe on other topics.
‘Would be fun, but … highly unlikely,’ Swedish cardinal says
A Swedish cardinal considered to be among the potential favourites to succeed Pope Francis said that he did not expect to be elected at the coming conclave, AFP reported.
“It would be fun to have a Swedish pope but I think it’s pretty unlikely. Highly unlikely,” Anders Arborelius, told Swedish public broadcaster SVT.
Arborelius, the first Swedish Catholic bishop since the Protestant Reformation more than 500 years ago, was appointed as the Scandinavian country’s first cardinal in 2017.
He converted to Catholicism at the age of 20 in the overwhelmingly Protestant country but also home to one of the world’s most secularised societies, AFP noted.
Arborelius confirmed he would take part in the conclave to elect the next pope but told SVT that he had asked Francis to release him from his duties as cardinal, because he wants to return to live in his monastery in southern Sweden.
He said the pope had approved his request but no date had been set for the end of his tenure.
