Cardinals meet in the Vatican to set funeral date for Pope Francis
Cardinals are meeting today for the first time to decide when Pope Francis’s body will be moved to St Peter’s Basilica – and when the funeral will take place. [BBC]
Source:Island
Cardinals are meeting in the Vatican this [22] morning to decide on a date for the funeral of Pope Francis, who died on Monday aged 88.
According to the apostolic constitution, the Universi Dominici Gregis – meaning the Lord’s whole flock – the service should happen “between the fourth and sixth day after death”. That would put the date of the funeral between Friday 25 April – Liberation Day in Italy, a national holiday – and Sunday 27 April.
Multiple Italian outlets are reporting the service is likely to be scheduled for Saturday, with national news agency Ansa citing Vatican sources.
Pope Francis’s death has set into motion the political process for the Church to select a new leader in the coming weeks
The pontiff’s death has prompted an outpouring of grief from Catholics across the globe. From South Sudan to Argentina, Poland to the Philippines