The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, plans to attend the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, on Thursday, in Rome, with departure and return the same day.
Asked by RTP, in Brasilia, if his presence at Joseph Ratzinger’s funeral has been confirmed, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa replied: “Yes, I go and come back the same day.”
“But in principle I will go to Rome, there are already other heads of state who are also going,” he added.
Reacting to the death of Benedict XVI on Saturday morning, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that “the pope emeritus wanted a very simple ceremony, and not a big state funeral,” but he did not rule out being present.
At the outset, the heads of state of Germany would be invited, because Ratzinger was German, and of Italy, due to the relationship between the Holy See and the Italian Republic, he said.
“My position is very simple: if there is an extension of the criteria in the sense that other heads of state, that is, some who are close to us, travel to Rome, I will go to Rome. But I will not take any initiative without seeing exactly what results from the ongoing proceedings,” he added.
Born in Marktl am Inn, Germany, in 1927, Ratzinger was the first German to head the Catholic Church in many centuries and a representative of the more dogmatic line.
Benedict XVI resigned from the pontificate for health reasons on February 11, 2013, two months after completing eight years in office.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stressed that he had conveyed to Pope Francis the condolences of the Portuguese State for the death of his predecessor Benedict XVI, whom he described as a “philosopher, theologian, thinker, intellectual, man of doctrine” and “in transition between two eras”. .
Source: TSF
