The Catholic world is granted of uncertainty, as Pope Francis, 88, remains in a hospital in Rome due to a complex lung infection and other serious diseases.
The Vatican said on Saturday that the pope remained stable after a bronchial spasm a day earlier demanded that he be subjected to non -invasive mechanical ventilation. On Saturday, the Vatican said that it was alternating that ventilation with long periods of high flow oxygenotherapy.
He had no fever and his blood work « remained stable. » Francis had spent about 20 minutes praying to the attached chapel in his room, adding the Vatican.
The prognosis remained guarded, the Vatican said, and the doctors still say that the pope is not safe.
The potentially serious mishap of the night had followed several days of improvements. On Thursday, his clinical condition had improved enough for critical conditions to be moved.
Here are what we know about his state and how things would go if he died.
Condition of Francis
The initial infection of Francis’s respiratory tract became pneumonia on the two lungs, and other complications have emerged during their hospital stay.
Due to a previous respiratory crisis, high flows of supplementary oxygen was given to him. On February 23, the Vatican announced that it was suffering from « initial and slight renal failure », which was « under control. »
He had said two days before Francis would not lead the annual service to open the Christian season of Lent.
It is being treated with several drugs and their doctors have said that calibrating it has been a challenge.
Given their age and history of lung diseases, doctors have been monitored by their prognosis.
After death
Although Francis’s fate is still unclear, what is safer is the rituals that remain in time drafted and refined over the centuries to ensure the secret and an orderly transition. Carefully choreographed provides order to a church in its most dramatic flow.
The death of a pope is immediately confirmed by the head of the Vatican Health Department and Cardinal Chamberlain in the Holy Roman Church, which becomes the Facto Administrator of the Vatican. The pope’s body is dressed in a white mouth and brought to the Pope’s private chapel.
Cardinal Chamberlain, Camerlengo, in Italian, is a position now occupying Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrellan American of 77-year-old Irish origin. He and other officials, along with members of the Pope’s family, meet in the chapel for a ceremony. The body is placed in a wooden coffin and zinc lined. The pope is dressed in red, his miter and the pallium are placed by his side.
Following the ceremony, the Camerlengo writes a document that authenticates the death of the Pope, who put the doctor’s report. He secures the private papers of the Pontiff and seals its apartments, which in the case of Francis are a large section of the second floor in the Santa Marta House, the Vatican guests house that was used with the visiting cardinals, where Francis has lived throughout his papacy.
It also organizes the destruction of the so -called fishermen’s ring, used by the Pope to seal documents, with a ceremonial hammer, to prevent fakes.
Pay the respects
Francis has brought an unpretentious style to the Church: rejecting the elaborate costumes and the ornamented papal apartments. Their plans continue to the end, reducing a little from the ceremony and the funeral ceremony.
In rewrite the funeral rites by 2024, Francis simplified various items. Since the thirteenth century, the bodies of the popes have passed public, their embalmed bodies placed on a pedestal raised. Whenever John Paul II died in 2005His body was first taken to the apostolic palace in a few hours by a private visualization for cardinals, bishops and other members of the church hierarchy, as well as prominent Italian officials.
Francis has ended with this type of visualization. Instead, a public visualization will take place directly in the Basilica of Sant Pere, where thousands have hit the popes in the past. But his body will remain in the coffin, which will not be in a pedestal raised. « Francis decided to emphasize the humility of glorification, » said Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, a church historian.
The College of Cardinals decides on the day and time that the pope’s body is brought to the Basilica of Sant Pere, in a procession led by the dressing room and when the visualization begins.
The funeral
It is supposed that the pope’s funeral and funeral will take place four to six days after his death, and the funeral rites in various churches in Rome will last nine days.
The past popes were put in three nesting coffins, one of cypress, one of zinc and one of Elm. But, as part of Francis » change of rule, he decreed that he would be buried in a single coffin, made of wood and zinc lined.
The coffin is closed the night before the funeral. The pope’s face is covered by a white silk veil and is buried with a bag containing coins nestled during his papacy and a container with a « rogito » or a writing, briefly listing details of his life and papacy. The rogito reads aloud before the coffin is closed.
The new rules also allow a pope to be buried in a church different from the Basilica of Saint Peter. Francis has asked to be buried instead of the Basilica of Santa Maria Major, a church estimated by him and often visited to pray in front of an icon of the Virgin.
The conclave
After 15 to 20 days of the death of the Pope, the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 91, will convene the cardinals in Rome for what is known as conclave to choose the successor of Francis.
The period between the death of a pope and the choice of a new one is called a vacant sector, or « the seat is vacant ». During this time, the College of Cardinals maintains the general supervision of the Church, but it is prevented to make significant decisions.
When the cardinals meet, they meet in the Sistine Chapel. All cardinal constituents must swear an oath of secret and vote by secret vote. Only Cardinals under the age of 80 are eligible to vote. A two -thirds majority is needed to choose a new pope and politics is part of the process.
Cardinals cannot leave the conclave, except in rare cases. The word conclave, of the Latin « with a key », refers to the isolation imposed on them, which aims to prevent the election process from dragging.
During the conclave, the cardinals live at Casa Santa Marta, which was Built on the orders of John Paul II To replace the improvised accommodation arrangements at the papal palace that had previously housed them.
The white smoke
The cardinals cast repeated votes until a two -thirds majority emerge. After each vote, the ballots are burned in a stove, along with an additive that produces a color, and the smoke is released through a fireplace that can be seen from Plaça de Sant Pere, where the crowds are usually formed to look and wait. If one vote is over without a two -thirds majority, the smoke is black.
When a decision is reached, the smoke is white.
Within the Vatican, the dean of the school asks the chosen successor if he accepts the job. After having achieved the alleged yes, the dean asks the name that he wants to be called Pope.
In the chapel’s sacristy, the new pontiff is dressed in a white mouth. After greeting the Cardinals, he goes to a balcony of the Basilica of Saint Peter, where a senior cardinal proclaims, in Latin, « Habemus papam » or « we have a pope ».
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