Pope Francis’s funeral will be held on Saturday in St. Peter’s Square, Roman Catholic cardinals decided on Tuesday, setting the stage for a solemn ceremony that will draw leaders from around the world.

Francis, aged 88, died on Monday after suffering a stroke and cardiac arrest, ending an often turbulent reign in which he repeatedly clashed with traditionalists and championed the poor and marginalised.

The pontiff spent five weeks in hospital earlier this year suffering from double pneumonia and had appeared to be slowly recovering, but the Vatican on Tuesday recounted his last moments, saying death came quickly and he had not suffered.

He started to feel unwell at around 5:30am (8:30am PKT) on Monday and was promptly attended to by his team. More than an hour later, he made a gesture of farewell to his ever-present nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, and slipped into a coma, the Vatican’s official media channel said.

His time of death was given as 7:35am (10:35am PKT).

The Vatican released photographs of Francis dressed in his vestments and laid in a wooden coffin in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence, where he lived during his 12-year papacy. Swiss Guards stand on either side of the casket.

His body will be taken into the adjacent St. Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday morning at 9am (12pm PKT), in a procession led by cardinals, allowing the faithful to pay their last respects to the first Latin American pope.

His funeral service will be held in St. Peter’s Square, in the shadow of the Basilica, on Saturday at 10am (1pm PKT).

US President Donald Trump, who clashed repeatedly with the pope about immigration, said he and his wife would fly to Rome for the service.

Among other heads of state set to attend were Javier Milei, president of Francis’s native Argentina, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, according to a source in his office.

Catholic Christians in Karachi were saddened to learn of the passing of Pope Francis.

“The Catholic Board has announced a holiday for Tuesday as a day of mourning. And on the day of his funeral, there will be another holiday,” said Reverend Father Mario Angelo Rodrigues.

Ancient rituals

In a break from tradition, Francis confirmed in his final testament released on Monday that he wished to be buried in Rome’s Basilica of Saint Mary Major and not St. Peter’s, where many of his predecessors were laid to rest.

Francis’s sudden death has set in motion ancient rituals, as the 1.4-billion-member church started the transition from one pope to another, including the breaking of the pope’s “Fisherman’s Ring” and lead seal, used in his lifetime to seal documents, so they cannot be used by anyone else.

All cardinals in Rome were summoned to a meeting on Tuesday to decide on the sequencing of events in the coming days and review the day-to-day running of the church in the period before a new pope is elected.

A conclave to choose a new pope normally takes place 15 to 20 days after the death of a pontiff, meaning it should not start before May 6.

Some 135 cardinals are eligible to participate in the secretive ballot, which can stretch over days before white smoke pouring from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel tells the world that a new pope has been picked.

At present, there is no clear frontrunner to succeed Francis.

‘Death is a new beginning’

Death should not be seen as the end of life but as the beginning of eternity, Pope Francis said in words he wrote only days before his final hospitalisation in the preface to a book due to be published this week.

“Death is not the end of everything, but the beginning of something. It is a new beginning … because eternal life, which those who love already begin to experience on earth, is the beginning of something that will never end,” Francis wrote in the book on old age by Italian cardinal Angelo Scola.

“For this reason, that (death) is a ‘new’ beginning, because we will live something we have never fully lived before: eternity,” he added.

Francis had repeatedly said during his pontificate that death was not a topic that should be avoided.

In a message to young people gathering in Mexico City in 2019, he said “the question of death is the question of life”, emphasising that facing the topic helped people to truly appreciate the value of life.

Progressive

Pope Francis inherited a Church in disarray and worked hard to overhaul the Vatican’s central administration, root out corruption and, after a slow start, confront the scourge of child abuse within the ranks of the priesthood.

He often clashed with conservatives, nostalgic for a traditional past, who saw Francis as overly liberal and too accommodating to minority groups, such as the LGBTQ community.

Francis appointed nearly 80pc of the cardinal electors scattered across the world who will choose the next pope, increasing, but not guaranteeing, the possibility that his successor will continue his progressive policies.

One of the hallmarks of Francis’ reign was his decision to appoint cardinals to far-flung regions — places where Roman Catholics make up a tiny minority or where the Church is growing faster than in the mostly stagnant West.

While Europe still has the largest share of cardinal electors, with about 39 per cent, it is down from 52pc in 2013, when Francis became pope. The second largest group of electors is from Asia and Oceania, with about 20pc.

Many of the cardinals are little known outside their own countries and they will have a chance to get to know one another at meetings known as General Congregations that take place in the days before a conclave starts, and where a profile of the qualities needed for the next pope will take shape.