CHANGES to the instructions for a papal funeral have been approved by Pope Francis. The triple coffin is being consigned to history, as is displaying the pope’s body on a catafalque before it is placed in its coffin at the place of burial, which is to be the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. The pope’s simplest titles will be used; and there will be no station at the Apostolic Palace.

“The ascertainment of death will no longer take place in the room of the deceased but in the chapel, and his mortal remains will be placed immediately inside the coffin. The faithful will be able to venerate the Pope’s body inside the open coffin, and the tradition of having three coffins of cypress, lead, and oak has been eliminated,” Vatican News has reported. The simple coffin will be lined with zinc.

The new edition of the Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis replaces that of 1998, used for the past two papal funerals.

The Master of Apostolic Ceremonies, Archbishop Diego Ravelli, said that Pope Francis had requested the revision “to simplify and adapt certain rites so that the celebration of the funeral of the Bishop of Rome may better express the faith of the Church in the Risen Christ”, and “to emphasise even more that the funeral of the Roman Pontiff is that of a pastor and disciple of Christ and not of a powerful person of this world”.