Pope Francis has chosen to be buried in a basilica in Rome and not in St. Peter’s Basilica alongside his immediate predecessors.
The Pope revealed this in an interview broadcast on Wednesday, December 13, 2023.
“The place is already prepared. I want to be buried in Santa Maria Maggiore,” he told Mexican broadcaster Televisa’s N+ streaming service.
In the same interview, Pope Francis, who will be turning 87 this weekend, revealed he planned to visit Belgium in 2024 and also hoped to visit his native Argentina and Polynesia.
Francis’s decision meant he would become the first pope to be buried outside the Vatican for more than 100 years.
The most recent pope to forego a tomb in St. Peter’s was Leo XIII, who passed away in 1903; his remains rest in the Basilica of St. John the Lateran in Rome.
Santa Maria Maggiore, one of Rome’s four papal basilicas, holds a special place for Pope Francis, who expressed a deep connection with it. Even before assuming the papacy in 2013, he frequently visited the basilica on Sundays.
Since his election, he has continued this practice, praying there before and after his journeys, and even after undergoing surgery. Seven previous popes have been interred in this basilica, according to Vatican News.
Pope Francis has faced increasing health challenges in recent years, leading to the cancellation of a visit to the COP28 climate talks in Dubai due to bronchitis.
In a recent interview, where he appeared in improved health, he praised his predecessor, Benedict XVI, for having the courage to step down when his health declined. Benedict, who resigned in 2013, became the first pope to do so since the Middle Ages.
After his death on December 31, 2022, Francis led a funeral in St. Peter’s Basilica, and Benedict’s body was interred in the same tomb that once held the remains of former pope John Paul II before being relocated for his beatification in 2011.
While Francis has expressed openness to resigning if he couldn’t fulfill his duties, he emphasized that stepping down should not become a regular occurrence for popes.
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