Donegal priest to attend funeral of Pope Francis

A Donegal-born priest will attend the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday.

Downings native Monsignor Eamonn McLaughlin is a Canon of the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, where the late pontiff will be laid to rest.

Pope Francis, who passed away on Easter Monday, expressed a wish to be buried in the basilica. 

However, Pope Francis was particularly taken by Santa Maria Maggiore, a place he last visited nine days before his death.

His funeral Mass will be held at St Peter’s Square and will be presided by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re.

Almost 100 popes are entombed in the crypt beneath St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. 

In a break with recent papal traditions, the remains of Pope Francis will be taken to Santa Maria Maggiore. He will become the first Pope since Pope Clement IX in 1669 to be interred there.  

Pope Francis gave instruction that “my mortal remains rest – awaiting the day of the Resurrection – in the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major”. He also instructed that his tomb should be “in the ground; simple, without particular ornamentation, bearing only the inscription: Franciscus”.

Last year, Pope Francis appointed Monsignor McLaughlin as the Undersecretary for the Dicastery for Clergy, Seminary Section, meaning he became one of the senior officials in the congregation of clergy around the world. He is also the Vatican official responsible for seminaries and the formation of priests.

Monsignor McLaughlin is involved in pastoral duties at Santa Maria Maggiore, the oldest Church in the western world dedicated to Our Lady.

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A former classmate of Creeslough curate Fr John Joe Duffy, Monsignor McLaughlin met Pope Francis in the days after the 2022 explosion that killed ten people in Creeslough and it was through the Donegal cleric that the Pope conveyed his thoughts with the bereaved community.