Cardinals will meet on Tuesday, April 22nd, to decide the date for Pope Francis’s funeral, starting a process that will culminate in the election of a new Catholic leader within three weeks.
Francis, the head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, died at his home in the Vatican on Monday aged 88 after suffering a stroke.
He had been recovering from double pneumonia that saw him hospitalised for five weeks.
The Argentine pontiff’s home country prepared for a week of national mourning while India began three days of state mourning on Tuesday, a rare honour for a foreign religious leader in the world’s most populous nation.
Heads of state and royalty are expected for his funeral, due to be held at St. Peter’s Basilica, with U.S. President Donald Trump the first to announce he would attend.
Francis will be buried in Rome’s Santa Maria Maggiore basilica, becoming the first pope in more than 100 years to be laid to rest outside the Vatican.
