Michael Reardon

2 weeks ago | thebostonpilot.com | Jaymie Stuart Wolfe |Michael Reardon

Your browser does not support the audio element. (OSV News) -- The conclave is set to begin May 7, but the public only knows its end by iconic white smoke billowing out of the Sistine Chapel's chimney. Black smoke means the cardinals have not yet reached the two-thirds majority vote necessary to elect a new pope. The cardinals burn the ballots in a stove, adding chemicals to the fire to color the smoke.

2 weeks ago | thebostonpilot.com | Junno Arocho Esteves |Justin Mclellan |Jaymie Stuart Wolfe |Michael Reardon

ROME (CNS) -- The casket bearing the body of Pope Francis made its final journey through the streets of Rome accompanied by applause and shouts of gratitude from thousands of mourners. After the funeral Mass April 26, pallbearers carried Pope Francis' coffin through St. Peter's Basilica, stopping briefly at the steps leading to St. Peter's tomb before placing it on a retrofitted popemobile parked outside.

2 weeks ago | thebostonpilot.com | Carol Glatz |Jaymie Stuart Wolfe |Michael Reardon

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When Pope Francis was elected as the first Latin American pontiff, he said his brother cardinals went out of their way to pick someone from the "ends of the earth."He spent the rest of his pontificate going back out to those peripheries, traveling to more than 65 nations, preferring those that were poor, scarred by war, marginalized and forgotten. Then the peripheries came to him on the day of his funeral in St. Peter's Square.

2 weeks ago | thebostonpilot.com | Jaymie Stuart Wolfe |Michael Reardon

Editor's note: This is the English translation of the prepared text of the homily, delivered in Italian by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, for the funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican April 26, 2025. It is provided by the Holy See Press Office and lightly edited for style.

2 weeks ago | thebostonpilot.com | Cindy Wooden |Jaymie Stuart Wolfe |Michael Reardon

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis was "a pope among the people, with an open heart toward everyone," said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, as he presided over the funeral of the pope, who died April 21 at the age of 88. And the people -- an estimated 200,000 of them -- were present as 14 pallbearers carried Pope Francis' casket into St. Peter's Square and set it on a carpet in front of the altar for the funeral Mass April 26.