The city of Rome expects to receive about 35,000 people at Pope Benedict XVI’s vigil and about 60,000 at the funeral, which will take place on Thursday, according to estimates by the city’s mayor.
The city of Rome 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, Mayor Bruno Frattasi of the Provincial Committee for Order and Security announced on Sunday. was urgently summoned.
For example, about 35,000 people are expected to attend the vigil and about 60,000 are expected to attend when Pope Francis presides over his predecessor’s funeral.
Benedict’s body is currently in the Vatican’s Mater Ecclesiae Monastery. No official visits or public prayers are scheduled until the burial chapel opens in St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday morning.
According to Frattasi, between 50,000 and 60,000 people are expected on the day of the funeral: “It will depend on several variables, including the weather, but it looks like it will be fine,” he said.
For safety reasons, the airspace above Sint-Pietersplein will be closed on the day of the funeral.
In addition, there will be a reinforcement of street patrol officers and medical teams, as well as 118 ambulance stations.
The city of Rome will also have more means of transport to ensure efficient organization of movements in the city.
“Public transport will be strengthened and there will be two transfer points, one in the Anagnina metro and the other in the Laurentina metro, so that people who come by private transport can park far from St. Employee.
There are also plans to manage and regulate the mass arrival of worshipers in St. Peter’s Square to pay tribute and farewell to Benedict XVI, with the main aim of preventing 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 lead the Catholic Church in many centuries and a representative of the Church’s most dogmatic line .
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI shocked the Church by resigning from the pontificate for health reasons on February 11, 2013, two months before celebrating eight years in office.
The sexual abuse of minors by priests and the “Vatileaks”, revealing confidential papal documents, were topics that stirred his pontificate.
Benedict XVI called the abuse a “heinous crime” and apologized to the victims.
Source: DN
