Vatican publishes new edition of funeral rites for Roman Pontiff

By Vatican News

The Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff has produced and realeased the second edition of the Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis, approved on 29 April 2024 by Pope Francis, who received the first copy of the printed volume on 4 November.

A number of new elements for papal funerals have been introduced. 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. 

The liturgical book was presented as a new edition following its predecessor, the editio typica of the Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis approved in 1998 by Saint John Paul II and published in 2000, which was used in the funeral of the same Pontiff in 2005 and, with adaptations, in those of Pope Benedict XVI in 2023. 

"A second edition became necessary," explained Archbishop Diego Ravelli, Master of Apostolic Ceremonies, "first of all because Pope Francis has requested it, as he himself has stated on several occasions of the need to simplify and adapt certain rites so that the celebration of the funeral of the Bishop of Rome may better expresses the faith of the Church in the Risen Christ."

Archbishop Ravelli also noted that "the renewed rite also needed 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."