Pope Francis’ Pontificate: A Timeline
A Legacy in Letters: Pope Francis’ Vision for a Missionary Church Through reform, reflection and outreach, Pope Francis shaped the Church’s future with 11 major documents
By Carol Glatz
Over his 12-year papacy, Pope Francis left a lasting imprint on the life and mission of the Catholic Church—not only through his example of humility and service, but through the major documents that defined his vision.
Over his 12-year papacy, Pope Francis left a lasting imprint on the life and mission of the Catholic Church—not only through his example of humility and service, but through the major documents that defined his vision.
From reforming the Roman Curia to calling the world to care for creation and uphold human dignity, his writings—four encyclicals, six apostolic exhortations and one apostolic constitution—reflect a pastoral heart rooted in Christ’s love. These works offer insight into his hopes for a Church that is missionary, merciful and engaged with the world.
Elected in 2013 with a clear mandate to reform the Roman Curia, Pope Francis completed the project with his apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium (Preach the Gospel), issued nine years after taking office. He also published important texts outlining ways to support care for families, the environment and young people, as well as documents encouraging Christians to be compassionate, joyful, holy and missionary disciples in today’s world—especially through devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Reform of the Roman Curia
An apostolic constitution is the most solemn form of legislation issued by the pope. It is used to enact major changes in Church law or governance, such as the reform of the Roman Curia.
Praedicate Evangelium (Preach the Gospel) – Released in 2022, this apostolic constitution reorganized the Roman Curia to emphasize its role in promoting the Church as a community of missionary disciples, sharing the Gospel and serving those in need. It replaced St. John Paul II’s 1988 constitution Pastor Bonus.
An encyclical is a teaching document written by the pope, typically addressed to bishops and the faithful, offering reflection on important issues of faith, morality or social concern.
Encyclicals
Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith) – Published in 2013, this was Pope Francis’ first encyclical, building on the work of Pope Benedict XVI. It completed a trilogy on the theological virtues—faith, hope and love—and encouraged Catholics to embrace their faith more fully.
Laudato Si’ (On Care for Our Common Home) – Issued in 2015, this encyclical called for a global dialogue on humanity’s responsibility to care for the environment and the “common home that God has entrusted to us.”
Fratelli Tutti (On Fraternity and Social Friendship) – Released in 2020, this encyclical addressed urgent global issues and called for greater solidarity and social friendship, envisioning a world where all recognize one another as brothers and sisters.
Dilexit Nos (He Loved Us) – Published in 2024, this encyclical focused on the human and divine love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. It offered the theological foundation underlying the pope’s messages over 12 years, emphasizing that everything “springs from Christ and his love for all humanity.”
An apostolic exhortation is a type of papal document that encourages a particular virtue or activity. It is less authoritative than an encyclical but still carries significant teaching weight.
Apostolic Exhortations
Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) – This 2013 exhortation urged missionary renewal and a new chapter in evangelization. While acknowledging confusion over some Church teachings, Pope Francis reaffirmed that women cannot be ordained and emphasized the sanctity of all human life, including the unborn.
Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) – Published in 2016, this post-synodal exhortation on marriage and family life synthesized the work of the 2014 and 2015 synods on the family. It addressed real-life challenges and called for pastoral accompaniment.
Gaudete et Exsultate (Rejoice and Be Glad) – Issued in 2018, this exhortation on the call to holiness encouraged everyday acts of faith and love as the path to holiness, emphasizing the dignity of all life in light of the Incarnation.
Christus Vivit (Christ Is Alive) – Released in 2019 after the Synod on Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment, this document spoke directly to youth, urging them to embrace the vitality of life in Christ and to serve their communities with joy and hope.
Querida Amazonia (The Beloved Amazon) – This 2020 exhortation responded to the 2019 Synod on the Amazon. Addressed to all people of goodwill, it expressed concern for indigenous peoples and the environment and offered reflections grounded in the wisdom of both the Church and the Amazonian cultures.
Laudate Deum (Praise God) – A 2023 follow-up to Laudato Si’, this exhortation addressed the climate crisis with urgency. It highlighted the need for moral leadership, ethical restraint, and care for the planet, warning that the root of today’s ecological and social injustices is the desire to take God’s place.
—Carol Glatz is a staff writer for our news partner, Catholic News Service
Pope Francis lived up to his namesake’s love, care for creation
By Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Tapping into the spirit and spirituality of his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis made care for creation and for all that lives on the earth a pastoral priority.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Tapping into the spirit and spirituality of his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis made care for creation and for all that lives on the earth a pastoral priority.
The importance of respecting and protecting the environment had been heralded by his predecessors: St. John Paul II spoke of human ecology and insisted ecological conversion was integral to supporting human life; and Pope Benedict XVI gained the moniker “the green pope” as the Vatican began to walk the talk with solar panel installations, a fleet of electric vehicles and other environmental initiatives.
But Pope Francis took it to the next level and used his position as a respected global figure to become a leading voice to reinvigorate existing efforts and rally all of humanity to see caring for creation not as a political, social, scientific or ideological battle, but as a moral imperative to hear and respond to the cry of the earth and those most affected by its degradation – the poor.
And he upped the ante on how serious an injury this is by saying abusing the “common home” of the earth, its ecosystems and all forms of life that depend on it, “is a grave sin” that damages, harms and sickens.
Pope Francis insisted the global crises unfolding in the world reflected an interconnectedness and interdependence between human beings and the earth. Social, economic, political and environmental issues are not separate problems, but are the many dimensions of one overarching crisis.
Embracing “integral ecology” recognizes the interconnectedness, he said, and how the values, mindsets and actions people affect all human endeavors — the cultural, social, political, economic, spiritual and theological — and the planet.
An integral ecology goes “to the heart of what it is to be human,” Pope Francis said. The flora and fauna, the heavens and seas and all people are not objects to be used and controlled, but are wondrous reflections of the divine; they are God’s creations and are gifts to be protected, loved and shared.
The core of his teaching on integral ecology, its principles and practical applications were laid out in his landmark 2015 document, “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home,” the first papal encyclical on the environment.
The document’s influence on the international community was evident when world leaders met in Paris for the 2015 U.N. Climate Change Conference, commonly referred to as COP21. “Not only had practically every delegate heard of ‘Laudato Si’,’ Pope Francis was cited by more than 30 heads of state or government in their interventions,” Archbishop Bernardito Auza, who represented the Holy See at the United Nations, said in a 2019 speech.
In fact, several experts believed the document had a deep impact on the successful adoption of the landmark Paris Agreement, a binding agreement for nations to fight climate change and mitigate its effects.
Pope Francis, likewise, issued a follow-up document, “Laudate Deum” (“Praise God”) ahead of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in the United Arab Emirates in 2023. The exhortation presented an even stronger critique of global inaction and indifference to climate change.
The pope had planned to attend the conference, which would have made him the first pope ever to go to one of the global gatherings that began in 1995. However, a bronchial infection, which made his breathing very labored, forced him to cancel his planned trip.
Pope Francis was not without his detractors. He had been labeled “naive” for following supposedly trendy notions about climate change; he often was accused of straying beyond his strictly spiritual role; and other critics expressed fear that his denunciation of “an economy that kills” and calls for change would support socialist-leaning positions, especially distrust of the free-market economy.
But for Pope Francis it was never a question of choosing either economic growth or care for the environment, as some detractors claimed. The path the pope pointed out envisioned the promotion of “integral human development,” which gives priority to helping all people thrive by protecting the planet and all its gifts now and for future generations.
In 2016, Pope Francis established the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, based on this understanding that safeguarding creation promotes peace and human rights and benefits economies, communities and present and future generations.
For the pope, the problem was not a single policy or position, but what he called “globalization of indifference,” an economy of exclusion and a throwaway culture.
Pope Francis’ stance, like his predecessors, was always a moral one — not pushing specific policies or programs but laying out the Gospel approach to guide citizens and policymakers so they could respond to problems more ethically.
Changing the world requires first transforming one’s thinking and values, and “we need to see — with the eyes of faith — the beauty of God’s saving plan, the link between the natural environment and the dignity of the human person,” the pope once wrote to young people in the Philippines.
Pope Francis solidly established ecology and safeguarding creation as a pro-life, pro-marginalized, pro-family issue. If people have no problem throwing away reusable resources or edible food when so many people are starving, there is a similar “throwaway” attitude toward people believed to not be useful — including the unborn, the sick and the elderly, he said.
Christianity teaches that God created the world and everything in it with a certain order and proclaimed it good. As stewards of God’s creation, Pope Francis said, people have an absolute obligation to respect that gift.
Every Life is Sacred: Pope fought abortion, death penalty, poverty
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In his efforts to promote a holistic defense of human life, Pope Francis frequently denounced a “throwaway culture” where anyone not considered “useful” was seen as disposable – including the unborn and the aged.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In his efforts to promote a holistic defense of human life, Pope Francis frequently denounced a “throwaway culture” where anyone not considered “useful” was seen as disposable – including the unborn and the aged.
But in connecting the sacredness of the life of the unborn and the lives of the poor, as well as in calling for the global abolition of the death penalty, Pope Francis often was accused of losing or at least watering down the church’s opposition to abortion.
In his 2018 apostolic exhortation on holiness, “Gaudete Et Exsultate,” (“Rejoice and Be Glad”), Pope Francis wrote that living a Christian life involves the defense of both the unborn and the poor.
“Our defense of the innocent unborn, for example, needs to be clear, firm and passionate, for at stake is the dignity of a human life, which is always sacred,” Pope Francis wrote. “Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned and the underprivileged, the vulnerable infirm and elderly exposed to covert euthanasia, the victims of human trafficking, new forms of slavery, and every form of rejection.”
In questioning whether he was as committed to ending abortion as his predecessors had been, critics particularly pointed to Pope Francis’ decision in 2016 to rewrite the statutes of the Pontifical Academy for Life, retaining its primary focus as “the defense and promotion of the value of human life and the dignity of the person,” but expanding its areas of concern beyond the very beginning and the very end of life.
In addition, during the 2015-2016 Holy Year of Mercy, Pope Francis gave all priests “the discretion to absolve of the sin of abortion those who have procured it and who, with contrite heart, seek forgiveness for it.” He made that permission permanent at the end of the Holy Year, ending the practice of requiring most priests to get permission first from their local bishop or from the Apostolic Penitentiary at the Vatican.
Vicki Thorn, the late founder of Project Rachel, a ministry promoting healing and forgiveness for those who regret an abortion, told Catholic News Service at the time that the pope’s decision did not downplay the gravity of abortion, but was a real sign of God’s love and mercy.
“For millions of women, in their hearts abortion is the unforgivable sin,” Thorn had told CNS. The papal act of mercy showed them there was a path to healing and forgiveness.
In his first major interview as pope, speaking with Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro in 2013, he said: “We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.”
Sometimes, though, when he did denounce abortion, he was criticized for being insensitive, particularly when he described abortion, as he often did, as “hiring a hitman to solve a problem.”
On his flight back to Rome from Belgium in 2024, he was blunt: “Abortion is murder.”
“A human being is killed. And doctors who engage in this are — permit me to say — hitmen,” he continued. “They are hitmen. This cannot be disputed. A human life is killed.”
But Pope Francis’ most controversial pro-life act was his revision in 2018 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to assert “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” and to commit the church to working toward its abolition worldwide.
The catechism’s paragraph on capital punishment, 2267, already had been updated by St. John Paul II in 1997 to strengthen its skepticism about the need to use the death penalty in the modern world and, particularly, to affirm the importance of protecting all human life.
Announcing Pope Francis’ revision in 2018, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, then-prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said, “The new text, following in the footsteps of the teaching of John Paul II in ‘Evangelium Vitae,’ affirms that ending the life of a criminal as punishment for a crime is inadmissible because it attacks the dignity of the person, a dignity that is not lost even after having committed the most serious crimes.”
Pope, a ‘son of immigrants,’ Leaves Legacy of Migrant Advocacy
By Justin McLellan, Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — When Pope Francis chose the small Italian island of Lampedusa as the destination for his first trip outside Rome after his election, he signaled to the world that migration would be a defining issue of his pontificate.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — When Pope Francis chose the small Italian island of Lampedusa as the destination for his first trip outside Rome after his election, he signaled to the world that migration would be a defining issue of his pontificate.
Standing at an entry point for thousands of migrants seeking refuge in Europe, he lamented what he called the “globalization of indifference” – a society desensitized to the plight of people forced to flee their homes.
Over the course of his 12-year pontificate, which ended with his death April 21, Pope Francis never relented in his appeals to world leaders and ordinary citizens to treat migrants humanely. He frequently condemned policies of mass deportation, called for more welcoming asylum laws and highlighted the dignity of those crossing borders in search of a better life.
The son of Italian immigrants in Argentina, Pope Francis sometimes invoked his own family history when speaking about migration. In his 2015 address to the U.S. Congress – the first by any pope – he urged lawmakers to embrace migrants rather than fear them.
“I say this to you as the son of immigrants, knowing that so many of you are also descended from immigrants,” he said, calling for a response to migration that “is always humane, just and fraternal.”
His concern for migrants extended beyond rhetoric and was reflected in powerful gestures as well.
In nearly all of his 47 international trips, the issue of migration played a central role, and in many cases, was the impetus for his visits. In 2016 and 2021, he traveled to Lesbos, Greece, a major gateway for refugees entering Europe. During his 2016 visit, he brought 12 Syrian refugees – three families with six children – who were facing deportation from the island back to Italy with him aboard the papal plane, describing the act as a “purely humanitarian” gesture.
Also in 2016, during the Holy Year of Mercy, he celebrated Mass in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, along the U.S.-Mexico border, drawing attention to the millions who risk their lives to cross it. In 2019, he unveiled the “Angels Unawares” sculpture in St. Peter’s Square, depicting a group of migrants and refugees from various cultures and historical periods, to remind the millions of visitors that come to the Vatican each year of the evangelical challenge of hospitality.
When Pope Francis was elected in 2013, the number of international migrants worldwide stood at 231 million. By 2024 that figure had risen to nearly 281 million. As conflicts, economic instability and climate change fueled displacement across continents, Pope Francis persistently framed migration as a fundamental moral issue that had serious policy implications.
He made that clear in 2014 when he addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Francis, emphasizing that Europe had a moral duty to support the development and stability of migrants’ countries of origin.
Under Pope Francis’ leadership, the Vatican, through the Dicastery for Integral Human Development, backed the 2018 “Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration,” the first U.N.-negotiated agreement to establish a cooperative approach to global migration. The Holy See played a role in shaping the compact’s emphasis on humanitarian protection, family unity and integration efforts.
And Pope Francis did not shy away from speaking up about migration issues in specific contexts, either. In 2017, he personally appealed to then-U.S. President Donald Trump to reconsider his administration’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, saying that a “good pro-life person” would not seek to separate children from their parents but would rather defend the family which is “the cradle of life.”
Similarly, in Italy, he consistently spoke out against hardline immigration measures, denouncing efforts to criminalize NGOs that rescued migrants in the Mediterranean.
In February, as Trump’s second administration ramped up anti-immigrant rhetoric and froze programs to assist legal immigration, Pope Francis again addressed the issue, this time in a letter to the U.S. bishops. Referring to ongoing mass deportations, he urged Catholics and people of goodwill not to fall for “narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters.”
Furthermore, in response to comments by U.S. Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, who suggested that love and charity should prioritize fellow citizens over migrants, Pope Francis countered that “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups.” Instead, he pointed to the parable of the Good Samaritan, calling for “a fraternity open to all, without exception.”
Within the church, Pope Francis also gave the issue of migration a more central focus in his magisterium.
In his 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home,” he decried the “widespread indifference” to the suffering of refugees forced out of their homes due to environmental degradation.
In the encyclical “Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship,” published in 2020, he forcefully condemned nationalism and xenophobia, stating that the treatment of migrants as “less worthy, less important, less human” by Christians is unacceptable.
In 2022, he canonized St. Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, an Italian who founded the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo to care for migrants, saying during the canonization Mass that refusing to care for migrants “is revolting, it’s sinful, it’s criminal.”
That forceful moral language, sometimes blunt and always unapologetic, was a hallmark of Pope Francis’ pontificate and cemented his legacy as a champion of migrants.
“It needs to be said clearly,” he said during a general audience in August 2024, “there are those who systematically work by all means to drive away migrants, and this, when done knowingly and deliberately, is a grave sin.”
From Lampedusa to Lesbos, from the U.S.-Mexico border to the heart of Africa, he preached that migration was not a passing crisis or a regional concern, but one of the defining moral tests of the modern era.
At his 2013 penitential Mass in Lampedusa, mourning the lives of migrants lost at sea, he prayed: “Let us ask the Lord for the grace to weep over our indifference, to weep over the cruelty of our world, of our own hearts, and of all those who in anonymity make social and economic decisions which open the door to tragic situations like this.”
A Way with Words: Pope Francis Wove Vivid Metaphors
By Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – A few days before Pope Francis was elected in March 2013, he told his fellow cardinals, “I have the impression that Jesus is locked inside the church and that he is knocking because he wants to get out!”
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – A few days before Pope Francis was elected in March 2013, he told his fellow cardinals, “I have the impression that Jesus is locked inside the church and that he is knocking because he wants to get out!”
With this short, simple phrase, then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires gave a clear, powerful snapshot of what he felt was needed for the church today: missionary disciples who head to the peripheries with the joy of the Gospel.
He later said the church will get sick if it stays locked up safe inside, being a “hairdresser,” fluffing and curling its flock’s wooly fleece, instead of seeking, like Christ did, the sheep who are lost. His sentences often sounded like proverbs with a recap and wise reflection wrapped in just a few lines.
Teaching high school literature before and after becoming a priest, Pope Francis possessed an extensive background in the themes and devices in literature and cinema. As a native-Spanish speaker who grew up with Italian-speaking relatives in Argentina and had Jesuit training, his wide and eclectic knowledge supplied him with elements that he’d mix and match with a religious message creating such metaphors as “the babysitter church” to describe a parish that doesn’t give birth to active evangelizers but only worries about keeping parishioners out of trouble.
“Armchair Catholics,” meanwhile, don’t let the Holy Spirit lead their lives. They would rather stay put, safely reciting a “cold morality” without letting the Spirit push them out of the house to bring Jesus to others.
For the pope, who saw Christ as a “true physician of bodies and souls,” there was no shortage of medical metaphors.
He pined for a church that would be “a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds.”
The consequence of pride or vanity, he warned on another occasion, “is like an osteoporosis of the soul: The bones seem good from the outside, but on the inside, they are all ruined.”
Another medical problem afflicting souls is “spiritual Alzheimer’s,” a condition that renders some people incapable of remembering God’s love and mercy for them and, therefore, unable to show mercy to others.
If people were to get a “spiritual electrocardiogram,” he once asked, would it be flatlined because the heart is hardened, unmoved and emotionless or would it be pulsating with the prompting and prods of the Holy Spirit?
And whether people recognize it or not, God is their true father, he has said. “First of all, he gave us his DNA, that is, he made us his children; he created us in his image, in his image and likeness, like him.”
The Ignatian spirituality that formed him came through many of his turns of phrase. Just as a Jesuit seeks to use all five senses to find and experience God, the pope did not hesitate to use language that involved sight, sound, taste, touch and smell.
And, so, he urged the world’s priests to be “shepherds living with the smell of sheep” by being with and among the people, seeing their challenges, listening to their dreams and being the mediator between God and his people to let God’s grace pass through.
Food and drink held numerous lessons. For example, Catholic elders need to share with the young their insight and wisdom, which become like “fine wine that tastes better with age.”
To convey the corrosive atmosphere a bitter, angry priest can bring to his community, the pope said such priests make one think, “This man drinks vinegar for breakfast. Then, for lunch, pickled vegetables. And, in the evening, a nice glass of lemon juice.”
Grumpy, gloomy Catholics with “pickled-pepper faces” are too focused on themselves rather than on the love, tenderness and forgiveness of Jesus who sparks and fuels true joy, he said.
Even country living held lessons. He once told parishioners to bother their priests like a calf would pester its mother for milk. Always knock “on their door, on their heart so that they give you the milk of doctrine, the milk of grace and the milk of guidance.”
Christians must not be boastful and shallow like a special sweet his Italian grandmother would make from a very thin strip of pastry, the crunchy dessert bloats and swells in a pan of hot oil. They are called “bugie” or “little lies,” he said, because “they seem big, but they have nothing inside, there’s no truth, no substance.”
To explain the kind of “terrible anxiety” that results from a life of vanity built on lies and fantasy, the pope said, “it’s like those people who put on too much makeup and then they’re afraid of getting rained on and all the makeup running down their face.”
Pope Francis never shied away from the gory or gross, calling unbridled capitalism and money — when it becomes an idol — the “devil’s dung.”
He equated the media’s love for “dirt” and scandal with “coprophilia,” a fetish for feces, and he said the lives of the corrupt are “varnished putrefaction” because, like whitewashed tombs, they appear beautiful on the outside, but inside they are full of dead bones.
Meeting once with cardinals and the heads of Vatican offices for an annual Christmas greeting, the pope explained the reform of the Roman Curia was more than just a face-lift to rejuvenate or beautify an aging body, but a process of deep, personal conversion.
Sometimes, he said, reform “is like cleaning an Egyptian Sphinx with a toothbrush.”
Pope’s Funeral Rites, a Celebration of Hope
By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis’ funeral rites, like those for any pope or any Christian, are meant to “reinforce the hope and witness to the faith” that those who have been baptized in Christ “will rise with him to new life.”
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis’ funeral rites, like those for any pope or any Christian, are meant to “reinforce the hope and witness to the faith” that those who have been baptized in Christ “will rise with him to new life.”
The prayer rituals for the formal recognition of his death April 21, his funeral and eight memorial Mass are designed as moments not of mourning but of prayers for his eternal rest in heaven and for the church.
The rites and rituals used are published in the “Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis” (“Funeral Rites of the Roman Pontiff”). The rites originally were approved by St. John Paul II in 1998 but were released only when he died in 2005. Modified versions of the rites were used after Pope Benedict XVI died Dec. 31, 2022.
A revised edition of the red cloth-bound book was published about a month before Pope Francis’ 88th birthday in December.
Archbishop Diego Ravelli, master of papal liturgical ceremonies, had told Vatican News the revised edition was needed, “first of all because Pope Francis asked, as he himself stated on several occasions, to simplify and adapt some of the rites so that the celebration of the bishop of Rome’s funeral would better express the church’s faith in the risen Christ.”
And, he said, the revised rites highlight “even more that the Roman Pontiff’s funeral is that of a shepherd and disciple of Christ and not of a powerful man of this world.”
In the book, the text of the rites, Masses and prayer services are given in their original Latin or Greek with Italian translations.
The introduction to the book asks all Catholics to remember in prayer the deceased pope’s relatives and those who worked closely with him.
The prayers, it says, should express “gratitude for the good that the deceased pontiff did for the church and humanity.”
In addition, the book says, “due respect” should be paid to the pope’s body, “which with the sacraments of Christian initiation became a temple of the Holy Spirit and with the sacrament of episcopal orders was totally dedicated to serving the people of God.”
The rites are divided into three “stations” based on the place they occur: “at home, in the Vatican basilica and at the burial place.”
Even the moment of the formal verification of the pope’s death takes place in the context of a prayer service “at home” in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae where he lived. The Vatican said that ritual would take place at 8 p.m. Rome time April 21.
The ritual book has separate services for transferring the body to St. Peter’s Basilica, the funeral, the burial and the memorial Masses that follow the funeral for the next eight days.
As revised by Pope Francis, the new rites maintain the practice of having the deceased pope’s body placed in St. Peter’s Basilica for public viewing and prayer before the funeral. However, instead of lying on a catafalque, that is, a kind of decorated platform, the body will be placed inside a zinc-lined coffin, which will remain open until the night before the funeral.
Just before the coffin is closed, the pope’s body is blessed with holy water and his face is covered with a white silk cloth, and a small purse containing coins minted during his pontificate is placed in the coffin with the body.
In addition, a metal tube containing a copy of the “rogito” is buried with him. The “rogito” is a legal document, with a brief biography of the deceased pope, that formally attests to his death and burial. It is read during the rite.
The dean of the College of Cardinals, currently 91-year-old Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, presides over the pope’s funeral Mass wearing red vestments.
The Gospel reading is from St. John’s account of Jesus asking Peter, “Do you love me?” and telling him, “Feed my sheep.”
The funeral Mass includes special prayers recited on behalf of the people of Rome, because the pope was their bishop, and on behalf of Eastern-rite Catholics.
Pope Francis has done away with the practice of a pope’s cypress coffin being placed inside a zinc coffin and then inside a coffin made of unspecified wood. Instead, he will be buried in the same zinc-lined wooden coffin used for the funeral.
Unless a pope chooses another burial place, his coffin is moved after the funeral Mass to the grotto of St. Peter’s Basilica for burial.
When a pope, like Pope Francis, has left instructions that he is to be buried somewhere else, it is the task of the papal master of ceremonies to make the appropriate arrangements.
In his autobiography, released in January (2025), Pope Francis said, “I will not be buried in St. Peter’s but at St. Mary Major. The Vatican is the home of my last service, not my eternal home.”
He also explained, “I will go in the room where they now keep the candelabra,” a small storage closet between the statue of Mary, Queen of Peace, and the chapel featuring the Marian icon “Salus Populi Romani” (“health of the Roman people”) where he prayed before and after each of his foreign trips.
The funeral Mass is the first of nine formal Masses – called the “novendiali” for “nine days” – that are celebrated for a deceased pontiff. While the Masses are open to the public, their celebration is entrusted in rotation to specific groups, including employees and residents of Vatican City State, the Diocese of Rome, the chapters of the major basilicas of Rome, the Roman Curia, the Eastern churches and members of religious orders.
When the nine days have ended, the church begins following another set of rites and liturgies contained in the “Ordo Rituum Conclavis” (“Rites of the Conclave”).
Funeral Mass for Pope Francis, April 26, 2025, Vatican News
U.S. Cardinal Announces Pope’s Death to the World
By Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – U.S. Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, the “camerlengo” or chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church, announced to the world that Pope Francis had died April 21 at the age of 88.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – U.S. Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, the “camerlengo” or chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church, announced to the world that Pope Francis had died April 21 at the age of 88.
Shortly before 10 a.m. in Rome, Vatican Media’s livestream of St. Peter’s Square switched over to a live broadcast from the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae where the pope lived.
Standing at a microphone and taking his cue that the camera was rolling, Cardinal Farrell gave the announcement in Italian: “Dear brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow I announce the death of our Holy Father Francis.”
“At 7:35 this morning Francis, the Bishop of Rome, returned to the house of the Father. His whole life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and his church,” said the cardinal, who was flanked by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, and Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the substitute for general affairs in the Secretariat of State. Standing next to the archbishop was the master of liturgical ceremonies, Archbishop Diego Ravelli.
Cardinal Farrell said that the pope “taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized.”
“With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of the Triune God,” he said.
Making the announcement, all four were wearing their simple, black clerical garb.
Reporters accredited to the Vatican press office had received an advisory at 9:45 a.m. local time via the messaging app, Telegram, notifying them that there would be a live broadcast to tune into on the Vatican News website and Vatican Media YouTube channel.
The press office then updated reporters on Telegram at 9:52 that the news had been Cardinal Farrell announcing the pope’s death.
Later in the morning, local churches started tolling the death knell from their bell towers. The request had come from Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of the Italian bishops’ conference, who had shared the announcement of the pope’s death on the conference website.
“It is a moment of sorrow and great suffering for all the church,” he wrote.
“Let us entrust our beloved Pope Francis to the arms of the Lord in the certainty, as he himself taught us, that ‘everything is revealed in mercy; everything is resolved in the merciful love of the Father,'” Cardinal Zuppi wrote, quoting from the late pope’s apostolic letter, “Misericordia et Misera,” (“Mercy and Misery”).
He asked all churches across Italy to ring the solemn toll throughout the day as a sign of mourning and to promote moments of personal and communal prayer in union with the other churches in Italy and with the universal church.
The Monday after Easter, April 21, is a major holiday in Italy with many residents going to the countryside for picnics or meals with friends and families. Rome, however, was full of tourists who were taking advantage of the holidays and time off from work and school.