New York: Numerous world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania, are set to attend Pope Francis’s funeral, slated for April 26, in the majestic Baroque plaza in front of St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.
President Javier Milei of Argentina, where the pope was born in 1936; Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva; United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres; UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer; Prince William; French President Emmanuel Macron; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, will also attend the event.
From India, President Droupadi Murmu will attend the state funeral of Pope Francis, India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced. She will pay homage to the Pope by laying a wreath at the Basilica of Saint Peter in Vatican City on April 25.
"On April 26, the president will attend the funeral Mass of His Holiness Pope Francis at Saint Peter's Square in Vatican City, which will be attended by dignitaries from around the world," the MEA said.
The funeral date was set by cardinals meeting in a so-called “general congregation”, the first of a series of meetings which will culminate in a conclave within three weeks, where a new pope will be elected.
Pope Francis had asked to be buried in St Mary Major, a Roman basilica he was particularly attached to, rather than St Peter’s like many of his predecessors, with a simple inscription of his name in Latin, Franciscus. In his will, Pope Francis called for his tomb to be “in the ground; simple, without particular decoration, and with the sole inscription: Franciscus,’’ or Latin for Francis.
