Vatican reveals reason behind Pope’s death

Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, died of a cerebral stroke and irreversible heart failure, Vatican doctor Andrea Arcangeli says in a death certificate.

The certificate released on Monday for the 88-year-old pontiff said the pope had fallen into a coma before his death on Monday morning.

Francis died of “cerebral stroke, coma, irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse”, the death certificate said. It added that the first Latin American pontiff in the history of the Roman Catholic Church died at 7:35am (05:35 GMT) in his apartment at the Santa Marta residence in the Vatican.

Just a day earlier, the pontiff made what would be his final major appearance as he greeted thousands of Easter worshippers from an open-top popemobile in St Peter’s Square and delivered a blessing through an aide.

Francis had suffered various ailments during his 12-year papacy with life-threatening complications in recent weeks during a bout of double pneumonia, for which he spent 38 days at Rome’s Gemelli University Hospital in February and March.

The death certificate added that Francis also suffered from arterial hypertension, multiple bronchiectasis and type 2 diabetes, ailments that had not been previously disclosed.

The Vatican also released Francis’s spiritual testament – a written statement of faith – in which he said he wished to be buried in Rome’s Basilica of St Mary Major and not at St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, unlike many of his predecessors.

Francis’s death marks the beginning of nine days of mourning called the Novendiale.

His body will be dressed in papal vestments and placed in St Peter’s Basilica for public viewing before his burial. Daily prayer services and Requiem Masses will be held in Catholic churches worldwide and at St Peter’s Basilica during this time.

The Vatican also enters a transitional period called the sede vacante or interregnum, during which power is handed over to the College of Cardinals, but no major decisions will be made until the papacy is filled.

(With inputs from Al Jazeera)