Pope Benedict’s funeral was easy, pretty small and introduced the ‘two popes’ period to an end2 hours in the past

On the finish of a solemn funeral on a chilly foggy day, Pope Francis rose from his wheelchair in St. Peter’s Sq. and, with the assistance of a cane, stood earlier than the straightforward picket casket containing the physique of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.

He bowed earlier than the casket, held aloft by 12 pallbearers sporting gray jackets and white shirts and bowties, simply earlier than it was to enter the primary door of St. Peter’s Basilica. He positioned his proper hand on the coffin and blessed it earlier than closing his eyes for a number of moments of reflection as the gang clapped. Some shouted “santo subito” – saint now – their name to have Benedict canonized rapidly.

The easy ceremony, which started at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, noticed an incumbent pope presiding over the funeral of one other pope – unprecedented in trendy instances. It symbolized the top of the unusual “two popes” period. Benedict, who died at 95 on the final day of December at his residence within the Vatican gardens, resigned in 2013, changing into the primary pope to not “die on the cross” in additional than 600 years.

Francis opened his eulogy with the final phrases of Jesus, which have been spoken on the cross. “Father, into your fingers I commend my spirit,” Francis mentioned, talking in Italian.

He closed the eulogy by saying “Benedict, devoted pal of the Bridegroom, might your pleasure be full as you hear his voice, now and perpetually.”

Benedict’s funeral was small in comparison with that of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II. His funeral on April 8, 2005, stuffed the streets of Rome and the Vatican with three million mourners.

Some media studies mentioned Benedict’s funeral mass attracted about 100,000 individuals, although a Vatican spokesman put the determine at about half that. St. Peter’s Sq. was actually not full, and solely the heads of state and authorities of Italy and Germany, the place Benedict was born, attended the mass. Some authorities leaders, together with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki, paid their respects to Benedict privately within the days earlier than the funeral.

Benedict held extremely conventional views of Catholicism and plenty of within the crowd admired him for his conservative stance. He strongly opposed the ordination of girls and fortified the Vatican’s views that contraception shouldn’t be allowed. He additionally pushed for the return of the outdated Latin mass, which attracted orthodox church goers, if not many religious younger Catholics.

T. Ripley Parker, 26, a visible results specialist from Vancouver was on vacation in Rome when Benedict died and prolonged her keep within the metropolis so she might attend the funeral. She mentioned she transformed from Episcopalian to Catholicism as a result of she appreciated Benedict’s rejection of modernism.

“I felt the Latin mass was extra related to me, as a result of I like a severe, conventional service,” she mentioned. “I understand that Benedict and Francis are very completely different, however they realized from one another and weren’t divisive with one another, which was good for the Church.”

Eva Benedicta Sherpa, from Erfurt, Germany, mentioned she had met Benedict a number of instances and revered him for stepping down, although his resignation saddened her. “I cried when he resigned,” she mentioned. “He was like a father to me. However I do know he didn’t have sufficient power, sufficient energy, to hold on. If he had not resigned, I feel he would have died a number of months later.”

The resignation of Benedict, whose beginning identify was Joseph Ratzinger, stays a thriller. He mentioned he not had the “self-discipline and physique” to hold on, although he lived for nearly a full decade after he left the papacy.

Benedict’s demise has Vatican watchers questioning whether or not Francis will even resign – and, if that’s the case, when. The 86-year-old Argentine-born pontiff has brazenly mused a number of instances about stepping down. Final July, when he was returning to Rome after his Canadian tour, he instructed reporters on his flight that the “door is open” to his retirement.

Sandro Magister, an Italian journalist who has written two books on ecclesiastical affairs, not too long ago instructed Euronews that he thinks Francis’s resignation is feasible however not imminent though he has problem strolling and had colon surgical procedure in 2021.

“In actuality for those who observe him, he leads a really sustained, frenetic, breathless rhythm of life, whatever the knee illnesses,” he mentioned. “His fast-paced life isn’t the life of somebody who’s about to resign.”

Benedict was buried within the Vatican’s grottoes beneath St. Peter’s Basilica.