What I’m about to write will very quickly be overridden by events, but based on the apostolic constitution Universi Dominici Gregis, which lays out what is to happen after the death of the pope, it’s possible to determine when certain things are likely to happen. There is some play in what dates they should occur on, though, and the fact that the pope died not long before midnight makes it a little harder to guess what they’re going to count as the benchmark day, but the Cardinals will be announcing the official plans soon.
In any event,
- The pope’s funeral is to occur four to six days after his death. Since he died on Saturday the 2nd, that should place his funeral between Wednesday the sixth and Friday the
nintheighth. - The conclave is tentatively set to start on the fifteenth day after his death, which would be Sunday the 17th, but since that is a Sunday they might start it Monday the 18th to avoid conflicting with liturgical celebrations of one of the Sundays of Easter. They have the flexibility to delay it up until the 20th day after his death, which would be Friday the 22nd.
Once the conclave begins, there is no way of knowing precisely how long it will last, though I suspect that it will last only 2-4 days, based on recent conclaves.
Jimmy,
As for the funeral, I think you meant Friday the 8th…