On the eve of the first day that the body of Pope Emeritus Benedict was made available for viewing, Italian police forecast 30,000 visitors. At the end of the afternoon, 65,000 people passed through St. Peter’s Basilica.
At the start of the day, 10 Papal Knights, lay attendants to the Pope, carried the body on a cloth-covered wooden stretcher to its resting place in front of the main altar.
People wait in line to enter St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, where the late Pope Benedict XVI will be buried in the Vatican, Monday, January 2, 2023. Benedict XVI, the German theologian who will be remembered as the first Pope in 600 years to resign, has died, the Vatican announced on Saturday. He was 95.
(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
POPE EMERITUS BENEDICT XVI DIED AT 95, SAYS THE VATICAN
A Swiss Guard, the legendary pope’s guard dating back to 1506, greeted Benedict’s body as it was carried from the monastery grounds where the 95-year-old pontiff died, to the Basilica in a van. Benedict XVI’s secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, followed him on foot along with a group of consecrated lay women who served in Benedict’s household.
Before the general population was allowed into the basilica, prayers were recited and holy water was sprinkled over the body by the basilica’s archpriest, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti. Benedict’s hands were clasped, a rosary around his fingers.
On Monday, the Vatican confirmed the widely reported burial plans. In accordance with his wishes, the tomb of Benedict XVI will be in the grotto crypt below the basilica that was last used by Saint John Paul II, before the saint’s body was transferred to the main basilica before his death. beatification in 2011, Vatican spokesman Matteo said. Bruni said.
FILE PHOTO: Pope Francis greets Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI during a mass to create 20 new cardinals during a ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican February 14, 2015.
(REUTERS/Tony Gentile/File photo)
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, born Joseph Ratzinger, was born in Germany before World War II and was a reluctant recruit to the Hitler Youth and the German Army before joining the priesthood. Ratzinger was elected pope in 2005 and resigned, the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years, citing ill health.
CROWDS GATHER AS THE BODY OF POPE EMERITUS BENEDICT XVI LIES IN THE VATICAN
“Pope Benedict leaves many legacies; I would point to two. First, he emphasized the organic development of the doctrine in his famous formulation ‘reform in continuity with the great tradition’. The last conciliar teaching, that of Vatican II, does not contradict the past but rather reaffirms and develops it. Prof. Christopher J. Malloy, Chair of the Department of Theology at the University of Dallas told Fox News Digital. “Second, and related to this, he opened wide the doors for the celebration of the Traditional Mass in Latin. The youth movement that ignited this generous permission remains strong and growing by the day.”
Retired Pope Benedict XVI (R) and Bavarian State Prime Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) drink a glass of beer in the Vatican Garden in Vatican City, April 17, 2017. Benedict’s private secretary XVI, Georg Gaenswein, is behind the two. Benedict XVI is celebrating his 90th birthday and has received visitors from Bavaria, the German state where he is from. His actual birthday was celebrated with a small circle of close people, including his older brother Georg, Gaenswein and his housekeeper.
(Photo by Lena Klimkeit/Image Alliance via Getty Images)
“When Benedict XVI resigned, he drew attention to the crisis in the Church: the abuse scandals were a marker of a deeper struggle, a struggle that Benedict XVI described in his memoirs as ‘diabolical’ rather than ideological. He specifically referred to to the Marxist takeover of theology colleges and seminaries in the 1960s as a rejection of Christian hope.” Dr. Susan Hanssen, a professor of history at the University of Dallas told Fox News Digital. “This was also a theme of his encyclical Spe Salvi: the replacement of the supernatural hope of salvation from sin with purely political and philanthropic activism…essentially turning the Catholic Church into a secular humanitarian aid group.”
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Benedict XVI will be buried in the Vatican crypt on January 5.
