Pope Francis’ funeral date announced by Vatican as first images of his body released

Pope Francis‘ funeral has been scheduled for 10 a.m. local time (4 a.m. eastern) on Saturday at St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican announced Tuesday, following a meeting of the College of Cardinals at the Catholic Church’s city-state headquarters in the heart of Rome. The coffin carrying the pope, who died Monday morning after suffering a stroke and heart failure at the age of 88, will be brought in a procession Wednesday morning, accompanied by cardinals, to the basilica from his residence at Casa Santa Marta, where he died.

The pope’s body was laid to rest Monday in a coffin in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence. The Vatican released the first photos and video on Tuesday of Francis in his coffin, wearing a red robe with the papal mitre on his head and a rosary intertwined in his hands. 

The images showed cardinals and other church officials performing what the Vatican said was the formal Confirmation of the Pope’s Death and praying over his body.

CBS News correspondent Seth Doane said the intimate service at the Santa Marta hotel gave senior clergy and Vatican insiders a private chance to pay their respects to Francis. The Vatican’s ornately attired Swiss Guards were, as ever, standing at attention by the pope’s side.

The interim administrator of the Vatican, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, an Irish-American who will play a major role in the funeral and subsequent events in the coming weeks, will preside over the procession and the ritual transfer of the pope’s body to St. Peter’s Basilica.

The pontiff will lie in state ahead of his funeral at the basilica from Wednesday morning, the Vatican said. The funeral Mass will be celebrated three days later by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Giovanni Battista Re. The papal funeral is broken down into three separate phases, or “stations.” They are the preparation of the body, the viewing of the body, and then the burial.

Who will come to Pope Francis’ funeral?

The funeral at St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday will draw “Patriarchs, Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, and priests from across the globe,” the Vatican said. It will also be attended by a number of world leaders and other dignitaries.

The pope’s coffin will be carried through the 500-year-old basilica’s so-called “door of death” to the left of the main altar, and a single bell will toll.  

President Trump said Monday that he and first lady Melania would attend, as did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and France’s Emmanuel Macron.

The Reuters news agency said Brazil’s President Luis Inacio da Silva and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had also confirmed that they would attend the funeral.

China’s government indicated Tuesday that no decisions had been made regarding which officials might attend the service at the Vatican.

What happens after Pope Francis’ funeral?

After the funeral Mass at St. Peter’s, Pope Francis’ coffin will be taken to the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, where he will be entombed. The pope chose to be buried at the smaller basilica, which is about four miles away, outside the Vatican walls. He prayed at St. Mary’s often, before and after international trips during his 12-year pontificate.

Between 15 and 20 days after the pope’s death, the Cardinal Electors will gather at the Vatican and seal themselves off from the world behind the doors of the Sistine Chapel for the papal conclave, the centuries-old process of choosing the next pope. Only cardinals under the age of 80 — currently a group of about 135 — are eligible to vote in a conclave.  

The meeting of the cardinals on Tuesday was the first in what will be a series of gatherings culminating with the conclave. John Allen, editor of the Catholic news website “Crux,” told CBS News that the cardinals who were already at the Vatican to attend Tuesday’s meeting would soon be joined by others from around the world.

“The really important part of these meetings begin when cardinals begin giving programmatic talks about where they believe the church stands… and what the profile of the man is needed to carry it forward,” Allen told CBS News about the process leading up to the conclave.

“Let’s be clear: These are not the Iowa Caucuses. Nobody’s going to be standing up, barnstorming on behalf of their preferred candidate,” he said, adding that one can, however, “read between the lines” of the addresses delivered by the cardinals “to figure out, ‘he’s probably talking about cardinal so-and-so, or he may be talking against cardinal, so-in-so… so this is as close to political sausage grinding as we’re going to get in the process electing the next pope.”

For the actual conclave, the cardinals will cast ballots inside the Sistine Chapel, out of public view, for their choice to lead the church, repeating the process until a candidate emerges with a two-thirds-plus-one majority. The paper ballots are burned after each round of voting, sending up black smoke to signal no choice has been reached yet, and finally white smoke to reveal that a new pope has been selected.