Pope Francis’ body placed in St Peter’s Basilica after solemn procession

FUTURE CONCLAVE

A conclave to choose the new pope is not expected to start before May 6. The cardinals now gathering in Rome will decide the date following what are often prolonged discussions.

There is no clear frontrunner to succeed Pope Francis, although British bookmakers have singled out Luis Antonio Tagle, a reformer from the Philippines, and Pietro Parolin, from Italy, as early favourites.

Tagle and Parolin stood together in the basilica, flanked by about 80 other cardinals, as the wooden coffin was laid on a dais in front of the altar, built on the spot where St Peter, the first pope, is believed to have been buried after dying as a martyr in the reign of Emperor Nero (54 to 68 AD).

Pope Francis’s body was dressed in red vestments, his hands clasped together holding a rosary, and a white mitre on his head.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, a US-born conservative prelate who was often at odds with Pope Francis during his 12-year papacy, was among those who approached the coffin and bowed.

Pope Francis shunned much of the great pomp and ceremony traditionally associated with the role of head of the world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics. He clashed repeatedly with traditionalists, who saw him as overly liberal and too accommodating to minority groups, such as the LGBTQ community.

In electing a new pope, cardinals will have to consider whether to complete Pope Francis’ promised reform of the Church, making more room for women in senior positions and being more amenable to an evolving society, or opt for retrenchment.

Some 135 cardinals are eligible to participate in the secretive conclave, which can stretch over days before white smoke pouring from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel tells the world that a new pope has been picked.

Speculation is already rife on who should succeed Pope Francis, who was from Argentina and was the first non-European pope in 1,300 years.

Swedish Cardinal Anders Arborelius suggested his fellow electors should again look beyond Europe, where Catholic congregations have been dwindling for years.

“I believe it would be very natural to choose someone from Africa, Asia, or in any case from those parts of the world where the Church is, in some way, more alive, more dynamic, and with more of a future,” Corriere della Sera newspaper quoted him as saying.