The wake for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI opened to the public this Monday at 9:00 a.m. local time (08:00 a.m. in Lisbon) when hundreds of people were already queuing to enter St. Peter’s Basilica, in the Vatican.
The body of Benedict XVI, who died on December 31 at the age of 95, was deposited in the central nave of Saint Peter’s Basilica, in front of the so-called confession altar, next to Bernini’s famous canopy.
The wake will be open to the faithful for the last farewell to Benedict XVI until 7:00 p.m. local time today (6:00 p.m. in Lisbon).
The remains of Benedict XVI were transferred from the Mater Ecclesiae monastery, in the Vatican Gardens, where the emeritus pope had lived since 2013, to Saint Peter’s Basilica.
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.
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 lead the Catholic Church in many centuries and a representative of the most dogmatic line of the Church. .
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.
The funeral of Benedict XVI will take place on Thursday, in Saint Peter’s Square, in the Vatican, at 9:30 am local time (8:30 am in Lisbon), in a celebration presided over by Pope Francis.
Source: TSF
