The 86-year-old head of the Catholic Church, Jorge Bergoglio, who has had a series of health problems and uses a wheelchair to get around, said he he will have a coffin for the funeral rites, but not a catafalque, adding that he wants to be buried “with dignity, like any Christian”in the interview book “El Sucesor”, by Javier Martinez-Brocal.
Recalling the funeral ceremonies of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, in January last year, Francis said: “It was the last wake celebrated in this way, with the Pope’s body exposed outside the coffin, on a catafalque. “I spoke to the master of celebrations [litúrgicas pontifícias] and we eliminated that and many other things, because the ritual was too overloaded”, he stated.
Francisco confirmed that he had already given instructions to be buried in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, unlike his predecessors, who were all buried in Saint Peter’s Basilica, stressing that he would like to be buried “in a room where the candelabra are kept”. “This is the place, they confirmed to me that everything is ready”, he told the Spanish journalist.
The Argentine Pope explained that the Marian basilica has been very dear to him since before he became Pope, in 2013, and that he used to go there often to pray when he was Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, of Buenos Aires, before being elected, after his resignation of Benedict XVI.
On February 11, 2013, Benedict XVI announced his resignation (with effect from February 28), citing a “lack of mental and physical strength” due to old age. His was the first resignation from office since that of Gregory XII, in 1415, and the first on the initiative of the Pope himself since that of Celestine V, in 1294.
He then told an episode: once, in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, a man tried to trick him by claiming to want to sell him a watch. “Purely instinctively, I told him that I didn’t have any money with me, and then they told me that, if I had taken it out of my wallet, he would have slapped me and stolen it. Shocking,” he commented.
