VATICAN CITY, Holy See — Pope Francis led the funeral of his predecessor Benedict XVI on Thursday in entrance of tens of 1000’s of mourners in St Peter’s Square, an occasion unprecedented in trendy instances.
Scarlet-clad cardinals, dignitaries and 1000’s of clergymen and nuns from around the globe gathered to say goodbye to the German theologian, who surprised the Catholic church in 2013 by changing into the primary pontiff in six centuries to resign.
For the primary time in trendy historical past, the papal funeral was led by a sitting pope, Francis, who delivered the homily in Italian as a part of a multi-lingual service with a Latin mass.
“Benedict… may your joy be complete as you hear His voice, now and forever!” the pontiff mentioned in tribute to his predecessor, who died on Saturday aged 95.
At the tip of the service, Francis made the signal of the cross over Benedict’s easy cypress wooden coffin and bowed his head, earlier than pallbearers carried it into St Peter’s Basilica.
Benedict will likely be interred in a tomb within the Vatican Grottoes beneath the basilica the place John Paul II’s physique lay earlier than being moved for his beatification in 2011.
The Polish pontiff was made a saint in 2014.
In a non-public ceremony after Thursday’s funeral, Benedict’s coffin was tied with a purple ribbon and positioned in a zinc coffin, earlier than being sealed and put inside a wooden casket, in line with the Vatican.
Coins and medals minted throughout his papacy and a written textual content describing his preach, sealed in a metallic cylinder, have been positioned alongside his physique.
Paying homage
Born Joseph Ratzinger, the ex-pope had not been a head of state for a decade, however world leaders together with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have been amongst these in attendance.
Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen, 90, additionally attended after being granted permission by a courtroom to journey following his arrest final yr below the town’s nationwide safety regulation.
An estimated 50,000 folks have been in St Peter’s Square for the funeral, in line with police, a lot of them having queued up since daybreak in thick fog to bid farewell.
“Benedict is a bit like my father, so I had to pay homage to him,” mentioned Cristina Grisanti, a 59-year-old from Milan, who hailed the previous pope’s “purity, his candor, his mildness.”
An estimated 195,000 folks had already paid their respects earlier within the week when the physique lay in state on the basilica.
Many Germans—some in lederhosen—have been within the crowd on Thursday as church bells rang out throughout Benedict’s native Germany on the funeral’s fruits.
“We owe him so much. We want to show that we stand behind him,” mentioned Benedikt Rothweiler, 34, who got here from Aachen together with his household.
“He always accepted everything the way God wants it. This is a good example for us humans.”
Two popes
Benedict was a superb theologian however a divisive determine who alienated many Catholics together with his staunch protection of conservative doctrine on points corresponding to abortion.
His eight years as head of the worldwide Catholic Church was additionally marked by crises, from in-fighting throughout the Vatican to the worldwide scandal of clerical intercourse abuse and its cover-up.
When he stop, Benedict mentioned he now not had the “strength of mind and body” vital for the duty, retiring to a quiet life in a monastery within the Vatican gardens.
His dying introduced an finish to an unprecedented state of affairs of getting two “men in white”—he and Francis—residing within the tiny metropolis state.
He and Francis, an Argentine Jesuit, have been mentioned to take to each other, however Benedict’s later interventions meant he stayed a standard-bearer for conservative Catholics who didn’t like his successor’s extra liberal stance.
The final time a pope presided over the funeral of his predecessor was in 1802, when Pius VII led the ceremony for Pius VI.
Pius VI died in 1799 in exile, a prisoner of France, and was buried in Valence. His successor had his stays exhumed and introduced again for a papal funeral at St Peter’s.
European royals
Beyond St Peter’s, most of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics had been anticipated to observe the funeral proceedings on tv and the radio.
In the Philippines, church buildings held requiem lots for the previous pontiff, together with at Malolos Cathedral in Malolos, Bulacan.
“This is an unexplainable feeling to witness this,” mentioned Cherry Castro, 67.
Portugal declared a nationwide day of mourning on Thursday, whereas in Italy, flags have been flown at half-mast on public buildings.
The solely official delegations have been from Germany and Italy.
But different dignitaries, together with Belgian and Spanish royals, the presidents of Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Hungary, Slovenia and Togo, and the premiers of the Czech Republic, Gabon and Slovakia amongst others attended in a private capability. — AFP
