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The cause of Pope Francis’ death was a cerebral stroke that led to a coma and irreversible heart failure, according to his death certificate, which has been published by the Vatican.
Francis has only recently returned to the Vatican after 38 days in a hospital for a respiratory crisis that developed into double pneumonia, the longest hospitalisation of his 12-year papacy. He had also been living with high blood pressure and diabetes, his doctor said.
The Vatican also said the Pope had arranged for an unnamed benefactor to cover the costs of his burial.
He had asked to be buried “in the ground, without particular decoration” but with the inscription “Franciscus”.
The Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major, where Pope Francis will be buried.Credit: Getty Images
He will, in line with his final wishes, be buried at Rome’s Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major (Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica) – and not at the Vatican, as is often customary for popes.
The church is one of four papal basilicas in Rome, and the church that Francis visited the day after he was elected. (You can read more about it here).
No date has yet been announced for the funeral.
Pope Francis, who travelled to almost 70 countries during his nearly 12 years as pontiff, could always attract an immense crowd, particularly among the poor, the oppressed and the overlooked.
But Australia was deemed a journey too far for the pontiff, writes Tony Wright.
A selection of photographs from Rome by our own Flavio Brancaleone.
Mourners flock to St Peter’s Square on Monday.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
Crowds gather to pay tribute to Pope Francis at St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has cancelled all of his planned campaign activities in Melbourne today out.
Federal politics reporter Matthew Knott is spending the week on the trail with Albanese.
He writes:
Albanese has arrived at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne to pay tribute to the late Pope Francis. Monsignor Stuart Hall, the dean of the cathedral, greeted Albanese on a rainy day in Melbourne. The Prime Minister has joined a small group of mourners in the church, where a portrait of Pope Francis is on display at the centre of the cathedral. Albanese has cancelled his planned campaign events in Melbourne this morning to pay respect to the Pope.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrives to attend Mass at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The third leaders’ debate is due to go ahead tonight.
A crowd has gathered for a Rosary prayer at Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome.
Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko lead the prayer, which followed a Rosary prayer in St Peter’s Square.
Santa Maria Maggiore holds special significance for Pope Francis – it’s where he’s requested to be buried in a single, unadorned tomb.
Francis would visit the basilica often. He made a trip there after being recently discharged from hospital, and would attend the church before and after travelling overseas.
The ciborium in Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica.Credit: Getty Images
In the last 18 months of his life, Pope Francis had a frequent evening ritual: he would call the lone Catholic church in the Gaza Strip to see how people huddled inside were coping with a devastating war.
That small act of compassion made a big impression on Gaza’s tiny Christian community and was why he was remembered as a beloved father figure in the beleaguered territory.
“I was deeply saddened. He was our biggest supporter after God,” said Suheil Abu Dawoud, a 19-year-old Christian in Gaza. Francis “always healed our wounds and asked us to be strong,” he said.
In his last public appearance, Francis called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, urged the militant group to release the dozens of Israeli hostages and condemned growing global antisemitism.
In his last public appearance, Pope Francis called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.Credit: AP
In Israel, the pope left a more complicated legacy. He was widely appreciated for his outreach to the Jewish people and tough stance against antisemitism, his advocacy for freeing the hostages and meeting with their families during the war.
But he had become increasingly outspoken in his criticism of the Israeli military’s harsh tactics, expressing his pain thinking of Gaza, “of such cruelty, to the machine-gunning of children, to the bombing of schools and hospitals. … How much cruelty!”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog remembered Francis as a man of “deep faith and boundless compassion”. He wrote on social media: “I truly hope that his prayers for peace in the Middle East and for the safe return of the hostages will soon be answered.”
US President Donald Trump has confirmed he and the First Lady will attend the funeral of Pope Francis.
“Melania and I will be going to the funeral of Pope Francis, in Rome,” he said in a post on his TruthSocial page. “We look forward to being there!”
It will be the first overseas trip of Trump’s second term. He had been planning a visit to Saudi Arabia in May.
Credit: Instagram/LeoMessi
Argentinian football superstar Lionel Messi has paid tribute to Pope Francis, his countryman.
Messi posted a picture of the two meeting from 2013, before Argentina played a friendly against Italy in Rome.
The footballer said: “Thank you for making the world a better place.”
The funeral for Pope Francis will take place within four to six days, almost certainly at St Peter’s Square.
Francis will be buried, according to tradition, with coins minted during his papacy and a canister containing a “rogito” or deed that lists details of his life and papacy and is read aloud before the coffin is closed.
Cardinals from around the world will descend on Rome for the conclave, the meeting that occurs only for the particular purpose of choosing a new pope. That must begin between 15 and 20 days after the death of the pope.
Pope Francis in December.Credit: Getty Images, digitally tinted
All 252 members of the College of Cardinals can attend, but only those aged under 80 on the day that it commences are allowed to vote: today, it’s some 138 electors.
There is no limit on how long the process takes: the longest conclave in history, starting in 1268, lasted 34 months.
Once the victor is declared, the new pope-elect is asked whether they accept the role.
For more on everything that happens after a pope dies, including the significance of the white smoke, read our full explainer here.
Doctors had pleaded with him to rest. The double pneumonia had nearly claimed him just weeks before. He was 88, frail, and barely breathing at times during a 38-day hospital stay so dire his physicians, in private, considered letting nature take its course.
Yet, Francis had a different kind of prognosis in mind — one not guided by medicine, but by a mission.
He would live until Easter. He would speak one last time to the world.
In the end, it was not the solemn corridors of a hospital ward that bore witness to Pope Francis’s final days, but the sun-drenched square of St Peter’s Basilica, draped in spring tulips and echoing with chants of “Viva il Papa”.
Pope Francis in his popemobile at the Vatican on Easter Sunday.Credit: AP
Every pope is controversial – he divides, unites, angers and incites with his comments (or lack thereof) on issues of importance to the faithful and to the wider world.
Pope Francis was no different.
Church and state both influence and reflect each other – and Francis provoked discussion on national debt relief, war and immigration, argues Susan Connelly, a Sister of St Joseph.
Flowers are left outside St Peter’s Square in memory of Pope Francis.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
