The Pope Doesn’t Want to Be Buried With the Other Popes

In a surprising break with tradition, even for a religious leader known for eschewing customs, Pope Francis has said he has made arrangements to be buried in a Rome basilica, and not in the grottoes of the Vatican the way scores of his predecessors have been. Francis told Mexican broadcaster N+ that he plans to be laid to rest in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where he goes to pray before and after every trip to an icon of the Virgin Mary he particularly cherishes. “It’s my great devotion,” Francis said, according to the Associated Press. “The place is already prepared.” Roughly 100 popes have been buried—generally with great pomp and circumstance—in St. Peter’s Basilica inside the Vatican. Francis, who will turn 87 on Sunday and recently weathered a bout of bronchitis, also said that he has discussed paring back his funeral rites with his master of liturgical ceremonies. “We simplified them quite a bit,” he said, according to the Catholic News Service. “I will premiere a new ritual.”