The funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died on Saturday at the age of 95, will take place this Thursday in Saint Peter’s Square, in the Vatican, after a “solemn” but “sober” ceremonial that will be accompanied, according to official estimates, by thousands of people.
The funeral, after the body of the pope emeritus has spent three days in a burning chamber with thousands of people paying their last homage, will be “solemn”, with some adaptations, and “sombre”, by the express will of Benedict XVI.
Thus, the Vatican only officially summoned to the ceremony – which will be presided over by Pope Francis (who will deliver the homily) and celebrated by Giovanni Battista Re, Dean of the College of Cardinals – two delegations, from Italy and Germany, the country where Joseph was born. Ratzinger.
The Italian delegation will be led by the Head of State, Sergio Mattarella, and the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, as well as the German delegation, which will be led by the President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and the German Chancellor, Olaf Sholz.
A delegation from the Bavarian authorities, the birthplace of Joseph Ratzinger, will also be present, which will be headed by the head of the regional government, Markus Söder.
The Portuguese State will be represented at the ceremonies by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and by the Minister of Justice, Catarina Sarmento e Castro.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has scheduled a meeting today, in the Basilica of Saint Peter, with Pope Francis.
The presidents of Poland (Andrzej Duda), Slovenia (Natasa Pirc Musar) and Hungary (Katalin Novák) also confirmed their presence at the ceremony, as well as the Polish and Hungarian prime ministers, Mateusz Morawiecki and Viktor Orbán, respectively.
The Queen Emeritus of Spain Sofía and King Felipe of Belgium, as well as the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, will also be in Saint Peter’s Square.
Goran Grlic Radman and Nina Obuljen Korzinek, respectively, will be the heads of the Foreign Affairs and Culture portfolios from Croatia, and Bishop Kenneth Nowakowski, representing the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church leader Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk.
Some 60,000 people are expected in Saint Peter’s Square, according to estimates by local authorities.
The attendance of several ecumenical representatives is also expected, such as Antonio de Volokolamsk, president of the Department of Foreign Ecclesiastical Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, representing Patriarch Cyril (the highest official of the Russian Orthodox Church).
The presence of more than 400 bishops and 4,000 priests is expected for a ceremony that will have an almost identical model to the funeral of a practicing pontiff, but with some adaptations taking into account the current emeritus status of Benedict XVI.
The Pope emeritus will be buried, at his express wish, in the Crypt of Saint Peter’s Basilica, in the tomb that belonged to John Paul II, before the remains of the Polish Pope were transferred to the surface of the temple in 2011 after his death. beatification
The ceremony, which will have significant media coverage -more than a thousand journalists from more than 30 countries are accredited-, will take place from 9:30 am local time (8:30 am in Lisbon).
The surroundings of Saint Peter’s Square and the Basilica will be a restricted access area during the funeral, with reinforced security devices and closed airspace.
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. .
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.
Source: TSF
