• Over 400,000 attend Francis’ funeral and show its global popularity.
• Cardinals expected to announce the conclav date of the end of the grief.
• The debate over the next pope’s direction continues in the midst of concerns and hope.

With Pope Francis laid to rest, all eyes are now turning to the Conlamer, the secret encounter with cardinals intended to convene within a few days to choose a new leader of the Catholic Church.

Alongside world leaders and reigning monarchs, an estimated 400,000 people showed Saturday for the Argentine Pontiff’s funeral at the Vatican and the funeral in Rome.

The crowds were a testimony to the popularity of Francis, an energetic reformer that advanced the poorest and most vulnerable.

Many of these mourners the deceased pope, who died Monday aged 88, expressed anxiety about who would be followed him.

“He ended up transforming the church into something more normal, more human,” said Romina Cacciatore (48), an Argentine translator living in Italy.

“I’m worried about what’s coming.”

Monday Morning, 7 p.m. 9:00 (0700 GMT), Cardinals hold their fifth general meeting since the death of the pope, where they are expected to announce a date of the Conlam.

The choice of a pope held behind locked doors in the frescoed Sistine chapel has been the subject of public fascination for centuries.

Cardinal elections will cast four votes a day until a candidate ensures a two -third majority, a result sent to the waiting world by burning papers emitting white smoke.

Luxembourg Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich said last week that he expected the conclement to take place on May 5 or 6, after the nine days of papal grief ending on May 4th.

The German Cardinal Reinhard Marx told journalists on Saturday that the conclement would last just “a few days”.

Left his mark

Francis’ funeral was held at St. Peters Torv in Bright Spring Sunshine, a mixture of solemn ceremony and an outflow of feelings for the church’s first Latin American pope.

Several crowds are expected today (Sunday) when the public can start visiting its simple marble requirement at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, his favorite church in Rome.

Francis was buried in an alcove of the church and became the first pope in more than a century buried outside the Vatican.

In his domestic at the funeral, Cardinal Giovanni highlighted Battista Jesuit’s defense of migrants, relentless calls for peace and belief that the church was a “home for everyone”.

Many of the grieving expressed hope that the next pope would follow his example at a time of widespread global conflict and growing right -wing populism.

“We are concerned;

“He was a pope who made his mark on our generation,” added Marine de Parcevaux, a 21-year-old French student who participated in the mass.

Marx said the debate about the next pope was open and added, “It’s not a matter of being conservative or progressive … The new pope must have a universal vision.”

Pray for ourselves

More than 220 of the church’s 252 cardinals were at Saturday’s funeral and gathered again today afternoon at Santa Maria Maggiore to pay their respect at Francis’s grave.

There will also be a lot at St. Peter’s Basilica at. 10:30 (0830 GMT), led by Pietro Parolin, who was the Secretary of State under Francis and is a front runner to become the next pope.

Only cardinals under the age of 80 are eligible to vote in the Conlamer, where 135 are currently eligible – most of which Francis appointed himself.

But experts warn against assuming that they will choose one like him.

Francis, a former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, who loved being among his herds, was a very different character than his predecessor Benedict XVI, a German theologian who was better suited for books than kissing babies.

Benedict, in turn, was a significant change from his Polish predecessor, the charismatic, athletic and hugely popular John Paul II.

Francis’ changes triggered anger among many conservative Catholics, and many of them hope the next pope will return the focus on the doctrine.

Some cardinals have admitted the weight of the responsibility facing them by choosing a new leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

“We feel very small,” Hollerich said last week. “We have to make decisions for the whole church, so we really have to pray for ourselves.”