“We are here with the fragrance of gratitude and the ointment of hope to once again prove to him the love that will not be lost; we want to do it with the same anointing, wisdom, delicacy and devotion that he was able to dispense over the years,” he said. Pope Francis this Thursday in the homily during the funeral of the pope emeritus. “Benedict (…), may your joy be complete by listening to His definitively and forever [do Senhor] voice!”, locked.
German Joseph Ratzinger, who took the name Benedict XVI when he was elected to lead the Catholic Church in April 2005, died on the last day of 2022 at the age of 95, nearly a decade after he stepped down from office (he was the first to do so) over 600 years). He was buried this Thursday, after nearly 200,000 people paid their last respects as his body lay in a burning chamber, in the tomb that was John Paul II until the beatification process began in 2011 (it was completed in 2014).
In St. Peter’s Square, about 50,000 people, including political leaders such as President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, followed the ceremony, with some faithful asking for Benedict XVI to be canonized as well, just like his predecessor. “holy suddenlysaid one of the banners and shouts in Italian were heard at the end of the ceremony, just like at John Paul II’s funeral in 2005.
However, the request was less exuberant than at the time. Three of the last five popes are saints. Benedict XVI was not a consensual figure in the Church because of his conservative stance, and his pontificate was marked by several scandals of corruption and sexual abuse in the Church.
Francis, who spent most of the ceremony seated with knee problems that had plagued him for several months, stood up and touched the coffin, bowing his head in a final prayer and farewell before the coffin entered St. Peter’s Basilica.
The pope is 86 years old, one year older than Benedict XVI when he abdicated in 2013. and moves along in a wheelchair, but doesn’t seem to want to stop. A trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan is planned from January 31 to February 5, and to Portugal in the summer for World Youth Day.
Source: DN
