The Pope's funeral is tomorrow

NBC's Rory O'Neill reports world leaders are beginning their arrival to Italy for the Pope's funeral, conclave to begin within the next two weeks

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Six forty five in the morning. Finally a Friday over
to the Legacy Retirement Group dot com phone line, where
we find Rory O'Neill NBC News Radio, and it is
happening tomorrow the funeral for Pope Francis. About one hundred
thousand mourners have crowded Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City
since Wednesday, Rory to pay their respects to the Pope.

(00:20):
In fact, they've kept that open for twenty three hours straight,
closing only for an hour yesterday morning. But the funeral
mass scheduled for I think tomorrow at ten am local time.
I think that's really early Eastern time, about four am.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
That's right. And President Trump and First Lady Malamia Trump
are expected to depart Washington to attend the service around
nine o'clock this morning. They'll spend the night in Italy.
I think they arrived just before midnight and then attend services,
turn around and the President will return to Bedminster late
Saturday night, so it'll be a whirldwind trip for him.
President Biden, we believe, is also expected to be among

(00:56):
the dignitaries attending one hundred and thirty different delegations including
fifty heads of state and ten reigning monarchs, all expected
to attend.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
And then what happens to the pope after the service tomorrow,
So there.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Will be a big service in Saint Peter's Square outside.
Then at the end of that service, the pope's casket
will be brought inside the basilica for some final services
and prayers. Then he will be laid to rest entombed
over at Saint Mary Major Basilica there in Rome, not
in the Vatican like so many other previous popes, but
instead at this other church or this basilica that's nearby.

(01:35):
He will be in tomb there, and actually the basilica
there has a spot for him, and it's been made
for materials from the Italian region of Liguria. Liguria is
significant because that's where the pope's grandparents were actually from.
So yes, he's famous for being the first Argentinian pope,
but his grandparents were from an Italian town, and the
marble for his tomb will be coming from that town.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
And then after this weekend, the search the decision to
install a new pope. It really kind of begins in.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Earnest well, right, I mean, the Conclay probably won't happen
for another week or two. An official date, but probably
not until the first week of May. We're all sort
of thinking the May fifth timeframe, maybe somewhere in their
ish and then who knows how long that could go,
as they need two thirds majority in order to get

(02:26):
the next pope selected