Cardinals have decided the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis will begin May 7.

World leaders and rank-and-file Catholic faithful have said farewell to Pope Francis in a funeral that highlighted his concern for people on the peripheries and reflected his wish to be remembered as a simple pastor.

The Vatican is grieving the first head of the Catholic Church from the Americas and Saturday marks the beginning of the Novendiales, nine days of mourning. It also marks the fifth day of national mourning in Italy.

While Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re presides over Pope Francis’s funeral service at St. Peter’s Square, some of the most prominent world leaders will be in attendance.

Vatican News has reported that Pope Francis was thankful that he was able to greet throngs of people in St. Peter’s Square on Easter, a day before he died.

A change in popes is a complicated process, with centuries-old rituals involving the transition in leadership for both the spiritual head of the global Catholic Church and the Vatican’s head of state.

An Irish-born American cardinal was entrusted by Pope Francis to be the camerlengo, the Vatican official who runs the Holy See after the death of one pontiff and before the election of another.

The death of a pope triggers a centuries-old ritual to elect a new one.

The death of a pope sets in motion a series of carefully orchestrated rites and rituals well before the conclave to elect his successor begins.

Pope Francis is continuing his slow recovery from double pneumonia and beating back speculation of an imminent death, resignation or conclave.

The Vatican says that Pope Francis continues to improve from double pneumonia Thursday, though doctors say he needs more days of “clinical stability” before they revise their guarded prognosis.

The Vatican says Pope Francis has shown further slight improvement as he battles double pneumonia, but doctors still say his prognosis is still guarded.

The Vatican has detailed laws and rituals to ensure the transfer of power when a pope dies or resigns, but not when he is sick.

The Vatican released a statement this morning saying that due to a painful sciatica, Pope Francis would not attend the Vespers in St. Peters today and the 9gmt Mass tomorrow morning as scheduled. (Fabio Frustaci/pool via AP)VATICAN CITY – A back condition has forced Pope Francis to skip New Year’s ceremonies at St. Peter's Basilica, a Vatican spokesman said Thursday. The pope also won’t celebrate Mass in the basilica n New Year’s Day for the same reason, he said. A Vatican cardinal filling in for him read it aloud during the evening vespers service. Instead, the pope cited the oft-told Gospel parable of the good Samaritan, and gave it a pandemic twist.