Pope Francis: When I die I want a decent coffin like all Christians

In details of the way in which he wishes his funeral sequence to be carried out, when he migrates to the Lord, the . These reports on the pontiff’s funeral are contained in a book – interview by Pope Francis, released on Wednesday, April 3, in Spain, entitled “The Crown Prince” and co-written by journalist Javier Martinez Brokal. In this book it is stated that, after his death, the pontiff is to be placed in a simple coffin “decent, but as is done with every Christian”. His body, i.e., will not be exposed on a large wooden base, as happened with his predecessors. The so far ceremonies were too loaded, we removed many things,” said the pope, who confirmed that he does not wish to be buried inside the Vatican, but at the royal church of Santa Maria Magiore, dedicated to the Virgin, which is at a central point in Rome. “There is, in this church, a room where they guard the candlesticks and assured me that everything is ready for my burial,” Francis stressed, during the dialogue with the Spanish journalist. The funeral, as reformed by the pope himself, foresees only one wake, and not two, without any special ceremony for closing the coffin. Francis, at the same time, revealed that his successor, Pope Benedict, strongly defended him, when some accused him, as a heretic, for having sided with the symbiosis pacts of same-sex couples. The Argentine pope, finally, told that one of the first times he had come to Rome, right next to the church where he wants to be buried, a man approached him and tried to sell him a watch. Passive, though, informed him not to take off his wallet, for he was certain to steal it from him. “They told me he would slap me and take my wallet, terrible!” he said, features, Pope Francis.