VATICAN CITY, 21 April. Pope Francis will be buried sometime between Friday and Sunday of this week, a Vatican spokesman said. He said that according to Vatican rules, the funeral must take place on the fourth or sixth day after the pope's death. The cardinals will agree on the exact date at a meeting on Tuesday.
The spokesman also recalled that the pontiff had expressed his wish to be buried in Rome's Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore with a public funeral in St Peter's Basilica. Pope Francis died on April 21 at the age of 88. He assumed the leadership of the Catholic Church as the 266th pope in 2013 following the resignation of his predecessor Benedict XVI (1927-2022).
Francis was released from the hospital on 23 March, where he spent almost 40 days. He had been treated for a complicated form of pneumonia and, as his doctors later said, had twice come close to death. The pontiff was ordered to take two months of complete rest, but began briefly leaving his residence at the former Vatican hotel, St. Martha's, to visit St. Peter's Basilica.
On April 20, the head of the Roman Catholic Church drove Francis' popemobile through a square full of the faithful who had come out to celebrate Easter. According to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the most likely cause of death was a stroke or a cerebral hemorrhage.
TASS/gnews.cz-jav
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