The coffin of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is carried to St. Peter’s Square before his funeral mass on January 5, 2023. / Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Vatican City, January 5, 2023 / 03:21 am (CNA).
Tens of thousands of people gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Thursday for the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, a leading theologian of the 20th century and the first pope to resign from office in nearly 600 years.
Members of the royal family, cardinals, patriarchs, government representatives, and numerous Catholic families and religious attended the funeral on this cold and foggy morning in the Vatican. More than 3,700 priests celebrated mass together.
Cardinals Joseph Zen, Daniel DiNardo, Timothy Dolan, Gianfranco Ravasi and Giuseppe Betori, all named cardinals by Benedict, sat in the front row. The Vatican said 125 cardinals concelebrated.
The ceremony began with the transport of the Pope Emeritus’ wooden coffin from the Basilica to St. Peter’s Square.
Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Benedict’s personal secretary, approached the coffin, knelt before it and kissed it. The crowd then prayed the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary in Latin for the repose of the late Pope’s soul.
The funeral mass was simple and solemn, in keeping with Benedict XVI. The Sistine Chapel choir sang the “Salve Regina,” “In Paradisum,” and other hymns.
In St. Peter’s Basilica, a picture of the Resurrection of Christ was hung behind the altar.
Pope Francis presided over the funeral of his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
In his sermon he reflected on Jesus’ last words on the cross: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
“God’s faithful people, gathered here, now accompany him and entrust to him the life of the one who was their shepherd,” he said.
“Like the women at the tomb,” he said, “we too have come with the fragrance of gratitude and the balm of hope to show him once again the love that is immortal. We want to do this with the same wisdom, tenderness and devotion that he has given us over the years.”
Benedict XVI died on December 31 at the age of 95. As Archbishop Gänswein confirmed, his last words were “Signore, ti amo!” (“Lord, I love you”).
Almost 200,000 people came in the days before the funeral to see the body of Benedict XVI laid out in St. Peter’s Basilica.
“Together we want to say: ‘Father, into your hands we commend his spirit,'” Francis said in his homily. “Benedict, faithful friend of the Bridegroom, may your joy be complete in hearing his voice, now and forever.”
The Vatican had invited only two official state delegations – from Italy and Germany – to the funeral, but some heads of state and public figures decided to attend unofficially.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and Slovenian President Nataša Pirc Musar came to the Vatican to attend the ceremony, together with European royals Queen Sofia of Spain and King Philip and Queen Mathilde of Belgium.
In the intercession, the second prayer was spoken in German: “For Pope Emeritus Benedict, who has fallen asleep in the Lord: May the eternal Shepherd receive him into his kingdom of light and peace.”
The readings of the Mass were Isaiah 29:16–19 in Spanish, Psalm 23 sung in Latin, 1 Peter 1:3–9 in English, and the Gospel of Luke 23:39–46 read in Italian.
At the end of the funeral Mass, Pope Francis led the closing remarks and farewell speeches, followed by a minute of silent prayer.
Pope Francis approached with a cane and prayed while touching his predecessor’s wooden coffin.
Bells rang and the crowd applauded as Benedict XVI’s coffin was carried into St. Peter’s Basilica to its resting place in the crypt. People waved flags and banners, including one that read “Santo Subito,” calling for Benedict’s immediate canonization.
Born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, he was elected Pope in April 2005 under the name Benedict XVI after serving the Catholic Church for decades as a theologian, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal and one of the closest collaborators of John Paul II, whom he succeeded as Pope.
Benedict is considered one of the most important theologians of the Catholic Church. His pontificate was marked by a deep understanding of the challenges facing the Church in the face of growing ideological aggression, not least an increasingly secular Western mindset within and outside the Church. In a sermon shortly before the 2005 conclave in which he was elected Pope, he warned against the “dictatorship of relativism”.
On February 11, 2013, 85-year-old Benedict shocked the world by announcing in Latin that he was resigning, making him the first pope in 600 years to do so. He cited his advanced age and lack of strength as reasons why he was unfit to perform his duties.
In an Angelus message on November 2, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI said in his thoughts on life after death that eternal life is like “plunging into the ocean of infinite love, where there is no time – no before and no after. Fullness of life and joy: this is what we hope and expect from our communion with Christ.”
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