Pope Francis disclosed in a TV interview on Wednesday that he had opted to be buried in a Rome basilica rather than in St. Peter's Basilica with his immediate predecessors.
The pontiff, who turns 87 this weekend, told Mexican broadcaster Televisa’s N+ streaming service that, “The place is already prepared. I want to be buried in Santa Maria Maggiore.”
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 more than a century to be buried outside the Vatican.
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."
When he visited Rome prior to becoming pope, he would frequently go there on a Sunday. Ever since his election in 2013, he has prayed there both before and after trips, and he has also prayed there after surgery.
According to the official media site, Vatican News, seven popes have already been laid to rest in the basilica.
The pope's health problems have gotten worse recently, and bronchitis prevented him from attending the COP28 climate negotiations in Dubai.
In his Tuesday interview, where he looked considerably better, he praised his predecessor Benedict XVI for having the "courage" to resign while his health was failing.
In 2013, the German pontiff became the first pope to resign since the Middle Ages.
Benedict passed away on December 31, 2022, and his remains was interred in the tomb beneath St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican following a funeral presided over by Francis.
It was the same tomb that housed the body of 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.
