Long lines of mourners, many waiting more than four hours under the hot Roman sun, wound around St. Peter’s Square on the first day of viewing for Pope Francis on April 23, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Courtney Mares/CNA
Vatican City, Apr 23… […]
Youngsters surrounding Pope Francis in the popemobile. / Credit: Vatican Media
ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 23, 2025 / 12:55 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis, baptized as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, celebrated his patron saint’s feast day every April 23. The patron … […]
Pope Francis’s body lies in state at St. Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday, April 23, 2025 / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Apr 23, 2025 / 12:30 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis was brought in solemn procession to St. Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday morning, where the late pontiff will lie in state for three days for mourners to pay their final respects and say goodbye.
The Rite of Translation began in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta, where Francis lived for the 12 years of his pontificate, and ended with the Holy Father’s body before the Altar of Confession in the soaring basilica at the center of Christendom.
Pope Francis blesses the faithful at the Jubilee of the Sick in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City, on April 6, 2025, as his personal nurse, Massimo Strappetti, assists him in the wheelchair. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Vatican City, Apr 23, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).
Having cared for the aging Pope Francis as his personal nurse since 2022, Italian nurse Massimiliano Strappetti was among the few people who saw the Holy Father moments before his death on Easter Monday.
Before being appointed Pope Francis’ personal nurse in August 2022, Strappetti was the nursing coordinator for the Vatican’s health department. He started working in the Vatican in 2002 after having worked eight years in the intensive care unit of Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.
Strappetti’s appointment came very soon after he accompanied the Holy Father on a difficult apostolic journey to Canada from July 24–30, 2022. Throughout 2022, the Holy Father struggled with knee problems.
From August 2022 onward, Strappetti would be seen by the pope’s side at almost every one of the pontiff’s public appearances, including his weekly Wednesday general audiences and Sunday Angelus addresses in Rome and the Vatican as well as on his several apostolic journeys abroad.
The pope’s last words and final greetings were reportedly addressed to Strappetti, the man he trusted to care for him throughout the multiple illnesses and health emergencies he endured in the last years of his life.
“Thank you for bringing me back to the Square,” the pope is reported to have told the nurse. Stappetti, a husband and father known for his generosity toward others, brought the Holy Father in a wheelchair to the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica to deliver his final Easter Sunday urbi et orbi address on April 20.
After the blessing, the pope turned to Strappetti for his opinion, asking: “Do you think I can manage it?” before going down to the square to greet the 50,000 people from his popemobile, Vatican News reported.
The next day, the pope’s health began to deteriorate at around 5:30 a.m. on Easter Monday morning. An hour later, the Holy Father made a “gesture of farewell with his hand” to Strappetti before falling into a coma, after suffering a stroke, in his bed in his Casa Santa Marta apartment, Vatican News reported.
Strappetti closely accompanied the 88-year-old pope during his convalescence in the Vatican by providing round-the-clock care for the pope in his home following his March 23 release from the hospital after 38 days in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.
In an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Dr. Sergio Alfieri, head of the Gemelli Hospital’s medical team that cared for the pope, said they followed the pope’s clear order, through Strappetti, to “try everything, let’s not give up” during two critical moments when they needed to decide whether to continue or stop treatment.
Prior to working more closely with the Holy Father as his personal health care assistant, Strappetti was among the medical staff who, in the summer of 2021, advised the pope to undergo testing regarding issues with his colon. On July 4 of that year, the Holy Father underwent a three-hour operation that removed part of his colon.
Later in 2021, following the colon operation and 11-day hospitalization in Gemelli, Pope Francis praised Strappetti as “a man with a lot of experience” who “saved my life,” in an interview with Spanish radio station COPE.
“Now I can eat everything, which was not possible before with the diverticula. I can eat everything. I still have the postoperative medications, because the brain has to register that it has 33 centimeters [12 inches] less intestine,” the pope quipped in the interview.
The Salus Populi Romani icon is displayed in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Rome Newsroom, Apr 23, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis ordered that upon his death he would be buried in the Basilica Santa Mar… […]
Thousands depart St. Peter’s Square after praying the Holy Rosary for Pope Francis, Monday, April 21, 2025 / Credit: Kristina Millare/CNA
CNA Staff, Apr 23, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis died on April 21 at the age of 88. As Catholics around the world mourn his passing, a highly regulated process has now begun that will see the pope’s earthly body laid to rest and a conclave convened to elect his successor.
As of this moment, the chair of St. Peter is vacant — and you may have seen the phrases “sede vacante” and “interregnum” being used to describe the present period. Here’s a breakdown of what those phrases mean.
“Sede vacante” is Latin for “the see being vacant,” indicating the period when a pope has died or resigned and a successor has not yet been chosen.
Sede vacante begins at the moment a pope dies or resigns and concludes when his successor accepts his election as pope. The College of Cardinals is entrusted with governing the Church during the sede vacante, but only for ordinary business and matters that cannot be postponed.
The phrase doesn’t only apply to the office of the papacy — if a bishop who is the ordinary of a diocese dies or is removed from his post by the pope, the episcopal see is “sede vacante” until a successor is appointed.
It’s worth noting that the phrase “sede vacante” has also gained usage among some Catholics who erroneously believe that the chair of St. Peter has been empty, with no legitimate pope, for decades. Adherents to this view are known as “sedevacantists” and are, under canon law, in schism because they reject the pope’s authority.
“Interregnum” is a Latin word meaning “between the reigns” and can refer to the period between the reigns of any two rulers. In the case of the papacy, it refers to the period between the day of the death or resignation of one pope (which is counted as the first day of interregnum) and the election of his successor.
In papal documents, most notably Universi Dominici Gregis, issued by Pope John Paul II in 1996, the interregnum is referred to as the “vacancy of the Apostolic See.”
Three distinct phases take place during a papal interregnum:
1. The Nine Days of Mourning (Novendiales)
The pope’s body is currently lying in state in St. Peter’s Basilica, permitting the faithful to pay their respects. Between the fourth and sixth day after the pope’s death, a solemn funeral for the pope is celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica by the dean of the College of Cardinals, with the other cardinals. (Obviously, this is not done in the case of a papal resignation.)
The College of Cardinals declares an official mourning period of nine days, called the “Novendiales,” typically beginning on the day of the pope’s funeral. On each of the nine days a different cardinal or Church official celebrates a public funeral rite for the Holy Father, following the Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis (2024).
Pope Francis had said that when he dies, he will be buried at the Basilica of St. Mary Major, and not — as has been the custom of popes for over a century — at the Vatican.
2. The preparation for the conclave
Preparations for the conclave to elect the new pope are begun after the papal funeral. Normally, the day on which the conclave begins is to be the 15th day after the death of a pope, the 16th day of the interregnum.
The College of Cardinals was given the faculty under Universi Dominici Gregis to defer its beginning “for serious reasons” up to the 20th day after death (21st day of the vacancy). However, under changes made by Pope Benedict XVI, the College of Cardinals is granted the faculty to start the conclave early if “it is clear that all the cardinal electors are present; they can also defer, for serious reasons, the beginning of the election for a few days more.”
3. The conclave
The conclave itself takes place in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel under strict oath of secrecy; all of the cardinals are under penalty of automatic excommunication if they break the oath.
Cardinals, bishops, and Vatican officials walk alongside Pope Francis’ coffin in St. Peter’s Square on April 23, 2025, during the solemn transfer as Swiss Guards stand in formal formation. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Vatican City, Apr 23, 2025 … […]
Swiss Guards accompany the pallbearers with the wooden coffin of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square on April 23, 2025, during the translatio — the solemn transfer of the pope’s body for public viewing ahead of Saturday’s funeral Mass. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Vatican City, Apr 23, 2025 / 05:30 am (CNA).
Pope Francis passed away at 7:35 a.m. local time on Easter Monday, April 21, at his residence in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta, as confirmed by the Holy See Press Office. The 88-year-old pontiff led the Catholic Church for a little more than 12 years.
Follow here for live updates of the latest news and information on the papal transition:
A panoramic view of St. Peter’s Square filled with faithful attending Easter Sunday Mass at the Vatican on April 20, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Vatican City, Apr 22, 2025 / 17:08 pm (CNA).
With the death of Pope Francis on Monday, the Ca… […]
Cardinals, bishops, and priests carrying palm branches gather for the Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square, April 13, 2025. / Credit: Bénédicte Cedergren/EWTN News
CNA Staff, Apr 22, 2025 / 18:17 pm (CNA).
At the first general congregation of… […]
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