the body of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. died on Saturday (31), is veiled in St. Peter’s Basilica. This Monday (2) thousands of people lined up to pay their respects. The faithful can say goodbye to Joseph Ratzinger in the funeral chapel until Wednesday (4th).
The funeral of the former Pope will take place on Thursday (5). It will be the first time in the Catholic Church’s thousandyear history that a sitting pope will bury another pope. Dozens of heads of state and other religious leaders are expected to attend the funeral of the 265th pope in history.
The ceremony will begin at 5.30am (Brasília time) and will be sober as Benedict XVI required. has wished. At the end of the funeral, the coffin of the pope emeritus will be buried in the Vatican Grottoes, where the tombs of the popes are located, the Vatican said in a statement.
It will be “a simple ceremony,” said Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See’s press office. With this deed, the saga of the “two popes”, who lived together for almost a decade in the smallest country in the world, also comes to an end.
Yesterday, many Catholics present at the Vatican expressed their sadness at the death of the German Pope, who represented a conservative view of the Church less sensitive to the conflicts and problems of the world’s poorest.
“It is a very great pain. He was a very private person, but we saw his depth and he did a lot for the Church,” said Milo Cecchetto, a Roman guest at the square.
In his spiritual testament, written in 2006 and published on Saturday, Benedict XVI. “sincerely forgiveness” for anyone he may have offended in his life. He also thanked his parents for giving him life “at a difficult time” in 1927 in Germany moving towards Nazism. (AFP)