Vatican City — Pope Francis will be buried some time between Friday and Sunday of this week, a Vatican spokesman said.
He said that under Vatican rules, the funeral must take place on the fourth to sixth day after the pope's death. The exact date will be agreed upon by cardinals at a Tuesday meeting.
The spokesman also recalled that the pontiff had expressed the wish to be buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome with a public viewing at St. Peter's Basilica.
Pope Francis died on April 21 at the age of 88. He took the helm of the Catholic Church as the 266th pope in 2013, following the resignation of his predecessor Benedict XVI (1927-2022).
On March 23, Francis was discharged from the hospital, where he had spent nearly 40 days. He had been treated for a complicated form of pneumonia and, as his doctors later reported, came close to death twice. The pontiff was ordered to have two months of complete rest, but he began briefly leaving his residence in the former Vatican hotel of St. Martha's to visit St. Peter's Basilica.
On April 20, the head of the Roman Catholic Church drove Francis in the popemobile through a square full of worshippers who had come out to celebrate Easter.
