How Francis Changed the Symbols of a Pope’s Funeral

Opinion|How Francis Changed the Symbols of a Pope’s Funeral

Pope Francis’ papacy was born in a spirit of humility. In death he made sure to project the same quality.

The signs of this down-to-earth approach to the papacy were immediate, starting with taking the name of the saint known for his ministry of the poor. His first public remarks, addressed to the faithful in St. Peter’s Square after his election in 2013, ended with a simple, “Good night and rest well.” Then came touches like the ordinary black shoes instead of elegant loafers, paying his own lodging bill from the conclave, waving Vatican staff members into an elevator with him on his first day as pope and moving into a nondescript Vatican residence instead of the Apostolic Palace.

Francis, who died at 88 on Monday, adopted the same humble tone for his departure from this world. Last year he simplified the elaborate funeral rites developed over centuries of tradition, a permeating characteristic of the Catholic Church. The changes came in a new edition of the rule book for papal funerals, the “Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis.”

It was in keeping with Francis’ effort throughout his papacy to inject a sense of simplicity into the image of the church hierarchy, a pastoralism that most popes at least give lip service to but this one has taken concrete steps to carry out.

To start, the Vatican camerlengo — or the official in charge of the time between the death or resignation of a pope and the election of his successor — was required to confirm the pope’s death in a private chapel, instead of the room where he dies. (Doctors will be on the job, too.) He still presumably did so by calling out the name the pontiff was given at birth — Mario Bergoglio — since in death, the man no longer held the office. During the funeral, ordinary words like “pope,” “bishop” and “pastor” will be used instead of the pope’s more ornate titles, which include Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles and Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church.

His body will go into a zinc-lined, wooden coffin instead of the triplicate coffins of the past (cypress, lead and oak). It will bypass the private viewing for church officials in the Apostolic Palace and go straight to St. Peter’s Basilica for viewing by the public. The coffin will not be placed on a catafalque, or raised bier.