Pope Francis Reveals He Doesn’t Want To Be Buried In Vatican

Pope Francis has made the decision not to rest among his immediate predecessors in St. Peter’s Basilica.

In an interview that aired on Wednesday, December 13, he disclosed his desire to be interred in a Rome church.

“The place is already prepared. I want to be buried in Santa Maria Maggiore,” the pontiff, who turns 87 this weekend, told Televisa’s N+ streaming service in Mexico.

During the same interview, he disclosed that he intended to travel to Polynesia and his home country of Argentina in addition to visiting Belgium in 2024.

By making this choice, Francis would become the first pope in almost a century to be buried outside the Vatican.

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Leo XIII, who passed away in 1903, was the last to forgo a tomb in St. Peter’s. His bones are kept at Rome’s St. John the Lateran Basilica.

Among the four papal basilicas in Rome, Santa Maria Maggiore is the one where Francis claimed to have a “special connection.”

Before becoming pope, he would frequently attend there on Sundays when in Rome. He has prayed there both before and after trips since his election in 2013. He has also prayed there following surgery.

Previous popes to be buried in the basilica include seven, according to official Vatican News.

The Pope has been plagued by health concerns in recent years and was forced to abandon a trip to the COP28 climate negotiations in Dubai owing to bronchitis.

In his Tuesday interview, in which he appeared considerably better, he praised his predecessor Benedict XVI for having “the courage” to step down when his health was failing him.

In 2013, the German pontiff became the first pope to resign since the Middle Ages.

Benedict died on December 31, 2022, and his remains were buried in the mausoleum beneath St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican after a funeral led by Francis.

It was the same tomb that housed the body of the previous Pope John Paul II before it was relocated for his beatification in 2011.

Francis has stated that if he is unable to discharge his duties, he will follow Benedict’s example, but that stepping down should not become a “normal thing” for popes.