Good morning!

Mairead Maguire here. We are minutes away from the ceremony that will see the remains of Pope Francis laid out for the public to pay their respects.

We’ll be bringing you updates and photos of the event throughout the morning.

Irish-born cardinal Kevin Farrell will oversee the ceremony. He’s been a key figure in orchestrating events since the Pope passed on Easter Monday.

In his role as Camerlengo, Farrell confirmed and then announced Francis’s death.

At today’s ceremony, Farrell will begin with a moment of prayer, after which the procession will take Francis’s remains into St Peter’s Square and into the Basilica through the central door.

At the Altar of the Confession, a sacred space within St Peter’s Basilica that opens up in front of the main altar, Farrell will preside over the Liturgy of the Word.

At the conclusion of this, the visits to the body of Francis will commence.

The ceremony has just begun.

In changes made by the Pope last year, his body has been placed in a simplified wooden coffin with a zinc coffin inside, rather than in three wooden coffins as was previously tradition.

His casket will not be put on an elevated platform in St Peter’s Basilica, as was the case with past popes, but will instead be placed simply facing the pews.

Pope Francis’s body is currently being carried to St Peter’s Basilica.

Here are some photos of the procession so far, which involves a great number of people.

A large crowd waits in the square

Popes are often buried in multiple coffins – one made out of cypress, one of lead and one of elm, which are placed one inside the other, before the papal body is interred.

However, there is one coffin for Francis.

Francis also described the funeral service planned for him as “excessive” and “arranged with the master of ceremonies to lighten it”.

“No catafalque, no ceremony for the closure of the casket, nor the deposition of the cypress casket into a second of lead and a third of oak,” Francis said in his autobiography.

“With dignity, but like any Christian, because the bishop of Rome is a pastor and a disciple, not a powerful man of this world.”

The Pope’s body has arrived at the Basilica. 

He previously explained why he lived in the Santa Marta guest house, rather than St Peter’s. 

“I cannot live without people around me,” he said.

“Obviously, at the time, I caused some minor turmoil. But I need to live my life alongside others.

“Not even the pope can save himself alone.

“Throughout my life I have benefited from the presence of many saintly people next door, mostly simple people, who perhaps didn’t even go to church, or went two or three times a year, but who led a dignified life, earned their bread, cared for others.

“And here, now, at Santa Marta, in the Vatican, I meet many of them every day, men and women who work with humility, hidden away, with a genuine spirit of charity and service.”

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, born in Dublin in 1947, has been the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church since 2019.

The Camerlengo administers the property and revenues of the Holy See, which is the governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City State.

But the Camerlengo is also responsible for officially confirming the pope’s death and announcing it to the waiting world.

He is leading today’s ceremony.

You can read more about him here, in my colleague Diarmuid Pepper’s article.

Cardinal Camerlengo Kevin Joseph Farrell sealing Pope Francis's private apartment inside the 'Domus Sanctae Marthae' hotel at the Vatican yesterday Alamy Alamy

This is where the Pope’s body will be situated for the next few days.

People will be able to walk by the velvet rope and pay their respects.

Thank you for joining us!

We’re going to wrap up the liveblog now as the ceremony has come to a close.

Vatican News estimated that 20,000 people turned out to watch the procession through the square.

The funeral on Saturday is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of pilgrims as well as the Ireland contingent – President Michael D Higgins, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste.

US President Donald Trump, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, and Britain’s Prince William will also be in attendance.

Keep up with The Journal to get all the major developments over the coming days.