Tomorrow, Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral at 735 N. State St. will host a public mass in honor of the late Pope Francis, who passed away yesterday at the age of 88.
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, announced that he will preside over the memorial mass for the late pontiff on Wednesday, April 23 at 10am. The public is invited to attend, and the service will also be livestreamed at this link.
Affectionately known as "The People's Pope," Pope Francis—who was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina—was the papacy's first-ever Latin American leader. He was elected to the position back on March 13, 2013, succeeding Pope Benedict XVI, who had resigned on February 28, 2013, due to declining health.
During his decade-plus tenure, Pope Francis displayed notable progressivism in his approach to leading the Roman Catholic Church, publicly speaking out about everything from immigrant and LGBTQ+ rights to climate change.
He passed away just one day after making his final public appearance on Easter Sunday. Despite bowing out of all official Holy Week liturgies following his five-week hospitalization for double pneumonia, Pope Francis surprised worshippers with an appearance at St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday, April 20. In his final address from the basilica's balcony, he again call for a ceasefire in Gaza and peace in conflict zones across the world. (The religious leader famously phoned the Holy Family Church in Gaza City—the only Catholic Church in the besieged region—every night throughout the war.)
Though popes are customarily buried in the Vatican Grottoes beneath St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis will break that century-old tradition and be laid to rest at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. According to Pix11, in his last will, the pontiff "wished for a simple tomb in the ground bearing only the inscription, 'Franciscus.'"
Following the funeral, the process to elect a new pope—a conclave, as dramatized in the recent Ralph Fiennes film of the same name—will officially kick off.