A funeral in Rome. The discreet conversations for a new Pope begin. Mark Shriver on his search for Pope Francis.

Claire Giangrave from the Religion News Service is in Rome where the city is preparing for the funeral of Pope Francis. There’s a guest list including princes, presidents, and prime ministers. Why is this funeral as much a geopolitical event as a centuries-old religious rite?

Within days, perhaps even hours of Pope Francis’s funeral, the discreet meetings will begin among the 135 cardinals who will elect the next Pope. When the doors close on the conclave, we won’t – strictly speaking, shouldn’t – know anything until a new pope appears on the balcony of St Peter’s Square. But what happens in the crucial days leading up to the conclave as candidates start to emerge. FRANCIS CAMPBELL is vice chancellor of Notre Dame University in Australia. He also served as the UK ambassador to the Holy See.

MARK SHRIVER has spent much of his life around power. He was a successful Democratic Party politician and he’s a Kennedy. JFK and Bobby were his uncles and his father, Sargent Shriver ran for vice-president. But he’s also had a life of service, working with disadvantaged kids. A decade ago, grappling with his own Catholicism, he became fascinated with the relatively new Pope Francis. He wanted to recharge his faith. The result was an extraordinary book, Pilgrimage: My Search for the Real Pope Francis. We spoke with Mark when the book came out in 2017 but this week, we caught up again.