{"id":290178,"date":"2025-04-25T14:02:05","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T14:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/25\/how-pope-francis-simplified-papal-funerals\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T14:02:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T14:02:05","slug":"how-pope-francis-simplified-papal-funerals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/25\/how-pope-francis-simplified-papal-funerals\/","title":{"rendered":"How Pope Francis Simplified Papal Funerals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Pope Francis understood optics. When his body was moved from the Vatican guesthouse where he lived and died to the Basilica of St. Peter\u2019s on Wednesday<\/a>, his vision of a simpler papacy had one of its most tangible visual moments.<\/p>\n

It was unlike when Pope John Paul II died in 2005, and the procession that accompanied<\/a> his body to the basilica began in the opulently decorated Sala Clementina<\/a>. That procession was chronicled on live TV<\/a>, and as with previous popes, it moved down majestic marble staircases, and through the vaulted loggias and frescoed halls of the Apostolic Palace, reflecting centuries\u2019 worth of papal power and wealth.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis\u2019 procession was also televised<\/a>, but in his case it began with cardinals praying silently for a good 10 minutes. His body, nestled in an open coffin, was brought from the guesthouse \u2014 Francis had declined to live in the extravagant palace \u2014 to the basilica, a short walk under a bright blue sky, nature\u2019s palette. Inside St. Peter\u2019s, the coffin was placed low to the ground, not on a raised bier, for the throngs of people filing past to pay their last respects.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n