Pope Francis Reveals Surprising Plans for His Funeral

Pope Francis is set to be the first pontiff to be buried outside of the Vatican for more than a century after shunning a grand funeral.

The 86-year-old said in an interview with Mexico's N+ television on Tuesday that he wants to simplify the funeral proceedings for a pontiff, having frequently shunned elaborate traditions throughout his decade in the role.

He told N+ Vatican correspondent Valentina Alazraki that he wants to be buried in Rome's Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, his place of prayer before foreign trips, with the funeral mass in St. Peter's Square. He has been working with Archbishop Diego Ravelli to plan the arrangements, which will be a stripped-back affair, with no pontiff having been buried outside the Vatican's walls since Leo XIII in 1903.

However, despite detailing the arrangement, he stressed that he was not predicting his imminent decline and that he has recovered from the bronchitis that forced him to cancel a trip to Dubai this month to attend the Cop 28 climate summit.

"I feel good, I feel improved," Pope Francis told Alazraki. "Sometimes I'm told I'm not prudent because I feel like doing things and moving around. I guess those are good signs, no? I am quite well."

The Pope was in Mexico to mark the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe ahead of his 87th birthday on Sunday. He has been seen as a reformist against traditions, having not worn the crimson, fur-trimmed mozzetta cape usually given to the pontiff, and he has also declined to swap his former silver cross for a gold one. Additionally, he has kept his plastic watch and given any gift to him away to charity.

Pope Francis said he would resign early if his health became too burdensome, as his predecessor, Benedict XVI, did when he stood down in 2013. He did say, though, that pontiff resignations should not become the "norm," with popes expected to hold the role until their death, as Pope John Paul II did in 2005.

In the interview, the pope added that he had become determined to stand up to more conservative members of the Catholic Church who had championed the late Benedict XVI.

Earlier this year, he sparked fury by punishing Cardinal Raymond Burke, a conservative American and one of his most outspoken critics. He told the heads of Vatican offices in a meeting on November 20 that he intended to evict Burke and deprive him of his salary as a retired cardinal because he was a source of "disunity" in the church.