Thousands gather in the Philippines to mourn Francis
As bells tolled in churches around the Philippines, which Francis visited in 2015, thousands of worshipers gathered there to pray and reflect on the pontiff’s legacy.
“As we mourn his passing, we honor a life that brought hope and compassion to so many and inspired us to love one another as Christ loved us,” wrote Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the President of the Philippines, in a post on Facebook.
Philippines is home to the world’s third-largest Catholic population, with around 80% of the population identifying as Catholic, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. Cardinal Luis Tagle there is among the leading candidates to succeed Francis.
Japan, South Korea and India mourn Francis’ death
Arata Yamamoto and Mithil Aggarwal
National flags were flown at half-staff today in Japan, which Francis visited in 2019. Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Yoshimasa Hayashi, the government’s top spokesperson, noted that during that trip Francis visited the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where the U.S. dropped atomic bombs at the end of World War II, and called for a “world without nuclear weapons.”
Devotees inside Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul, South Korea today. Anthony Wallace / Pool via Getty Images
India, home to over 20 million Catholics, said it will also fly national flags at half-mast while declaring a three-day national mourning period.
Seoul’s Archdiocese said a memorial altar will be set up at the Myeondong Cathedral this afternoon for the public to pay tribute to Francis, who visited South Korea just a year into his papacy in 2014.
Body of Pope Francis displayed at the Vatican
The body of Pope Francis is being displayed in the chapel of the Domus Santa Marta hotel in Vatican City, after his death yesterday at the age of 88. Francis is shown in a wooden casket, in red vestments and his bishop’s miter.
Francis’ funeral to be held this Saturday
Pope Francis’ funeral will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET), the Vatican has said, with Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re presiding over the funeral liturgy.
The funeral Mass will be celebrated in the churchyard of the St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican said, adding the pontiff’s body will be taken to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore for burial.
Francis’ body to be taken to St. Peter’s Basilica tomorrow
The coffin containing Francis’s body will be taken to St. Peter’s Basilica tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET), the Vatican has said.
A procession will pass through Saint Martha’s Square, then into Saint Peter’s Square before entering the Basilica.
Fiji archbishop recalls pope’s ‘vulnerability’ on Papua New Guinea trip
In a message of condolence, the archbishop for the Archdiocese of Suva in Fiji said he was “touched by Pope Francis’ ministry” while accompanying him on a visit last year to Papua New Guinea, another Pacific island nation.
Francis made his historic Asia-Pacific trip despite concerns about his health and spent much of the visit in a wheelchair. “He embraced his own vulnerability as he often asked people to pray for him,” Archbishop Peter Loy Chong said in a statement.
Chong said Francis also “gave a message of hope and challenge” to the people of Oceania, where climate change threatens some countries’ very existence.
“He said, Oceania is far out in the ocean, distant from the rest of the world but at the center of God’s heart,” Chong said. “The Pope’s care for the Ocean resonates with the scientific view that if we care for the earth, the ocean is the first ecosystem that we should protect.”
Australian PM halts election campaign to mark pope’s death
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese marked the pope’s death by pausing election campaigning and attending a Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne.
“The holy father was one of the most consequential leaders of this century and of our lifetime. He was, indeed, the people’s pope,” Albanese, who was educated at Catholic schools, told reporters this morning as early voting began in the May 3 federal election.
Government flags will fly at half-staff as a sign of respect, the Australian leader said.
Body of Pope Francis displayed at the Vatican
Vatican Media via AFP – Getty Images
Vatican Media via AFP – Getty Images
Images taken yesterday and released this morning, show Pope Francis in an open coffin at the Chapel of Santa Marta in the Vatican.
Pope honored on Buenos Aires landmark
In Pope Francis’ birth country of Argentina, the obelisk of Buenos Aires was last night illuminated with a projection of the deceased pontiff bearing the phrase in Spanish that translates as “pray for me.”
Marcelo Endelli / Getty Images
Marcelo Endelli / Getty Images
America remembers Pope Francis
The death of Pope Francis is deeply personal for many in the U.S., who felt a connection to the first pope from the Americas. NBC News’ Erin McLaughlin shares the highlights of the pontiff’s visit to the U.S. in 2015.
Who will be the next pope? Here are some of the contenders
Dust off the history books and there are papal conclaves with international intrigue, royal rigging and even riots, a checkered past that belies the air of sanctity and solemnity surrounding modern papal elections.
The word “conclave” comes from the Latin for “with key.” It is a church tradition that began in 1268 with a papal election that lasted almost three years, ending only when the townspeople of Viterbo locked up the cardinals, tore the roof off their palace, fed them nothing but bread and water and threatened them until a new pope was chosen.
While it is very unlikely the decision on Pope Francis’ successor will take quite as long or be quite as contentious, Vatican watchers agree that the winner is not a foregone conclusion.
“The great joy of the conclave is that nobody really knows and it’s such a unique electorate,” James Somerville-Meikle, the former deputy director of the Catholic Union of Great Britain, told NBC News before Francis’ death. “So many conclaves in the past have thrown up surprises.”
A series of ancient traditions rule the pope’s funeral and conclave
In life, Pope Francis strayed from the more conservative path forged by his predecessors Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict.
But in death, Francis will be following in many of John Paul’s footsteps.
The demise of the first Argentine to lead the Roman Catholic Church set into motion a series of rituals, some of which go back more than 2,000 years and have been used to bury more than 250 popes.
They are compiled in a more than 400-page tome called the “Ordo exsequiarum Romani pontificis,” which includes the liturgy, music and prayers used for papal funerals over the centuries.
“The Ordo covers the rituals that are followed from the moment a pope dies to the moment a pope is buried,” said the Rev. David Collins, an associate professor and the director of Catholic studies at Georgetown University.
Pope Francis leaves a legacy as a Catholic Church reformer
From working as a bouncer at a Buenos Aires nightclub to presiding over the Vatican, the path Pope Francis forged as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church was as unlikely as it was unprecedented.
Francis, who died Monday at age 88, was keen to flex his muscles as supreme pontiff. He angered some Catholic Church traditionalists by reaching out to gay and marginalized people, demanding justice for the poor and the dispossessed and railing against unbridled capitalism and climate change.
As the first pope from the Americas, Francis was in many ways the ultimate Vatican outsider who charted a new and more liberal course as the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
“He embarked on a real reorganization of the church and a real reorientation of the church after four decades of conservative theologians’ leading the way,” said David Gibson, director of the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture.