The funeral Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who passed away on Saturday at the age of 95, will take place in St. Peter’s Square, right across from St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City on Thursday, January 5, 2023. Starts at 9:30 am local time or 3:30 am EST.
Pope Francis will preside over the funeral processions for the late pontiff.
The Vatican announced that Benedict, born in 1927 as Joseph Ratzinger, passed away Saturday morning at 9:34 a.m.
The body of the late pontiff is currently in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in Vatican City, where he spent most of his life after the papacy.
POPE EMERITUS BENEDICT XVI DEATH AT 95, SAYS THE VATICAN
File photo: Pope Benedict XVI holds his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, April 21, 2010.
(Eric Vandeville/BACAPRESS.COM)
Thursday’s ceremony will cap a multi-day memorial for the late pope, as tens of thousands of people paid tribute to his life and legacy Monday through Wednesday.
The Vatican said nearly 160,000 people had passed through the basilica during that time.
On Wednesday, the body of the late pope was placed in a cypress coffin, the first of three coffins, along with a brief written summary of his historical papacy, the coins minted during his pontificate and his canopy stoles.
Thousands also turned out for the last day of the public viewing of the body of Benedict XVI, which lay in St. Peter’s Basilica before Thursday’s funeral.
POPE BENEDICT’S VISION ON CATHOLICISM, VATICAN II AND THE FUTURE OF THE CHURCH ENDURES THROUGH HIS TEACHINGS
At the Vatican on Wednesday, Pope Francis praised Pope Benedict for his “sharp and gentle thinking.” He called Benedict a “great teacher of catechesis.”
“His sharp and tender thought was not self-referential, but ecclesial, because he always wanted to accompany us in the encounter with Jesus,” Francisco said during his speech.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI attends a Mass before the opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, formally initiating the Jubilee of Mercy, at the Vatican December 8, 2015.
(AP/Gregorio Borgia, File)
After the funeral, Benedict’s remains will be transferred back to the Basilica and the coffin will be placed in a zinc coffin and an oak coffin.
The coffin will then be placed in the crypt once occupied by the tomb of Saint John Paul II in the grottoes below the Basilica, at Benedict’s request.
THE LAST WORDS OF POPE BENEDICT, ACCORDING TO HIS NURSE
Benedict XVI’s personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, who cared for him until his death, told Vatican News that a nurse told her the pope made a final profession of love to the Lord in his final words.
“With only a whisper of voice, but in a clearly distinguishable manner, [Benedict] said in Italian: ‘Lord, I love you!’ He wasn’t there at the time, but the nurse told me soon after,” Gänswein said.
And he added: “These were his last understandable words, because later he could no longer express himself.”
POPE BENEDICT’S SECRETARY TO PUBLISH SOON THE INSIDE STORY OF HIS PAPACY: ‘NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH’
Gänswein is expected to share more about Pope Benedict XVI, whom he served in multiple capacities for nearly two decades, in a soon-to-be-published book about his experiences with the late pontiff.
Archbishop Georg Gänswein prays over the body of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Basilica.
(Stefano Costantino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Archbishop Georg Gänswein serves as prefect of the papal household and was a constant companion of Pope Benedict before his death.
The inside book on the late Pope is titled “Nothing But the Truth: My Life at the Side of Pope Benedict XVI” and his writings reportedly document Pope Benedict’s perspective on major Catholic issues, including the scandal of the pedophilia, the Vatileaks documents and his own unexpected retirement.
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“These pages contain a personal testimony of the greatness of a meek man, a great scholar, a cardinal and a Pope who made the history of our time,” Gänswein told the Italian press about the book. “But they are also a firsthand account that seeks to shed light on some misunderstood aspects of his pontificate and describe the real ‘Vatican world’ from the inside.”
