Sri Lanka, April 24 -- Colombo Archbishop Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith departed for Rome yesterday (23) to attend the funeral of Pope Francis, which will be held at St. Peter's Square on Saturday (26).

Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, passed away last Monday.

The Papal seat now stands vacant. A total of 135 cardinals under the age of 80 from around the world are eligible to participate in the conclave to elect the next Pope.

Cardinal Malcom Ranjith was installed as Colombo Archbishop in 2009, following the retirement of Archbishop Emeritus Oswald Gomis.

Cardinal Malcom Ranjith who is fluent in Sinhala, Tamil, English, Italian, French, German, Hebrew, Greek, Spanish, and Latin, has dedicated himse...