Pope Francis’s funeral will take place today, April 26, with hundreds of thousands of people expected to attend. Many heads of state and royals, including Prince William, Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer, have confirmed their attendance.
The ceremony will take place in front of St Peter’s Basilica, in the Vatican, as mourners from across the world pay their respects. Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who is one of the longest-serving senior cardinals in the Vatican and dean of the College of Cardinals, will preside over the funeral despite not being able to attend the conclave to elect the next pope. The 91-year-old has already summoned cardinals to Rome following the death of Pope Francis and will preside over all the congregation meetings in the run-up to the conclave. However, he will not attend the conclave as only cardinals below the age of 80 can cast a ballot for the pope in the Sistine Chapel.
The cardinals have decided on the logistics of the pope’s funeral during recent meetings, taking into account his wishes.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re was born in Borno, Italy, to a carpenter in 1934. He was ordained a priest by Archbishop Giacinto Tredici in Brescia in 1957 before becoming a member of the Roman Curia in 1963.
According to his Vatican biography, Cardinal Battista holds a doctorate in canon law and was ordained for the diocese of Brescia, a city in northern Italy. In 2001, he was proclaimed a cardinal by Pope John Paul II before being elected dean in 2020.
The cardinal has been vocal about abortion, calling it an “attack on the church”. It came after a nine-year-old Brazilian girl, who was pregnant with twins after being raped by her stepfather, had an abortion to save her life.
He said: “It is a sad case, but the real problem is that the twins conceived were two innocent persons, who had the right to live and could not be eliminated. Life must always be protected. The attack on the Brazilian church is unjustified.”
In 2008, the cardinal was named a member of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts by Pope Benedict. He was also a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Congregation for the Oriental Churches until his 80th birthday.
Cardinal Battista Re was highly respected by Pope Francis, who approved his election as subdean of the College of Cardinals in 2017. He also approved his election to a five-year term as dean of the College of Cardinals by the nine Latin Church cardinal bishops in 2020.
The pair then presided over the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI in 2023. It was attended by around 50,000 people and also took place in St Peter’s Square.
