The city of Rome expects to receive some 35,000 people during Pope Benedict XVI’s wake and some 60,000 at the funeral, which will take place on Thursday, according to estimates by the city’s mayor.
The Italian city is preparing to bid farewell to Benedict XVI, who died on Saturday at the age of 95, thousands of people are expected in the coming days, announced this Sunday the mayor Bruno Frattasi, of the Provincial Order and Security Committee, who was urgently summoned .
Thus, some 35,000 people are expected to attend the wake and some 60,000 when Pope Francis presides over the funeral of his predecessor.
Benedict’s body currently lies in the Vatican’s Mater Ecclesiae monastery, with no official visits or public prayers planned until the funeral chapel opens Monday morning in St. Peter’s Basilica.
According to Frattasi, the day of the funeral between 50,000 and 60,000 people are expected: “It will depend on several variables, including the weather, but it seems that it will be good,” he said.
For security reasons, the airspace above St. Peter’s Square will be closed on the day of the funeral. In addition, there will be a reinforcement of agents who patrol the streets and medical teams, as well as 118 ambulance stations.
The city of Rome will also have an increase in the means of transport to guarantee an efficient organization in terms of travel around the city.
“Public transport will be reinforced and there will be two interchange zones, one in the Anagnina metro and the other in the Laurentina metro, so that people who come with their own means of transport can park far from San Empleado.
It is also planned to manage and regulate the massive arrival of the faithful to Saint Peter’s Square to pay homage and say goodbye to Benedict XVI, with the main objective of avoiding possible human stampedes.
Joseph Ratzinger, who was Pope between 2005 and 2013, was born in 1927 in Marktl am Inn, in the German diocese of Passau, becoming the first German to head the Catholic Church in many centuries and a representative of the most dogmatic line of the Church. .
The Cardinal-Patriarch of Lisbon, D. Manuel Clemente, considered this Sunday morning that, as cardinal and pope, Benedict XVI was modern.
“Benedict XVI made a great impact, and he had already left his mark as Cardinal Ratzinger, because being a man of thought he was a very modern man and that was appreciated by many people, inside and outside the Church. It is very interesting the appreciation that he always enjoyed in the intellectual and academic world because his training was adequate for it, he always reserved a lot of time to delve into the topics and managed to speak very clearly, both when he spoke in doctrinal terms and in the various speeches he gave. pronounced. he carried out, the magazines in which the Pope collaborated had this activity that is very much appreciated », recalls D. Manuel Clemente.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI shook the Church when he resigned his pontificate for health reasons on February 11, 2013, two months before his eighth year in office.
The sexual abuse of minors by priests and the “Vatileaks”, in which case confidential papal documents were revealed, were issues that stirred his pontificate.
Benedict XVI called the abuses a “heinous crime” and apologized to the victims.
Source: TSF
