Archbishop Georg Gänswein (right), the longtime personal secretary for Benedict XVI, kneels to kiss the book of the Gospels atop the coffin of the pope emeritus on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square / Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Vatican City, Jan 5, 2023 / 08:35 am (CNA).
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, one of the foremost theologians of the 20th century and the first pontiff in nearly 600 years to resign from the papacy, was laid to rest Thursday following a funeral Mass attended by tens of thousands of people.
Here are scenes from the funeral, held outside in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on a cold, foggy morning in Rome:
On a foggy morning in Rome, pilgrims make their way to St. Peter’s Square on Jan. 5, 2023 for the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Daniel Ibañez/CNA
The coffin of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is carried into St. Peter’s Square prior to his funeral Mass on Jan. 5, 2023. Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Pallbearers carry the coffin of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI before his funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Jan. 5, 2023. Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Cardinals seated in St. Peter’s Square on Jan. 5, 2023 for the funeral Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Archbishop Georg Gänswein (right), the longtime personal secretary for Benedict XVI, kneels to kiss the book of the Gospels atop the coffin of the pope emeritus on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square. Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Cardinal Joseph Zen, former bishop of Hong Hong, attends the funeral Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square. Credit: Diane Montagna
Cardinal Joseph Zen, former bishop of Hong Hong (second from left), attends the funeral Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square. Alan Koppschall/EWTNPope Francis delivers the homily at the funeral Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Square on Jan. 5, 2023. Daniel Ibañez/CNA
The coffin of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is incensed during his funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Jan. 5, 2023, as Pope Francis looks on. Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Pilgrims from Bavaria pose at St. Peter’s Square where the funeral Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, a native Bavarian, took place on Jan. 5, 2023. Courtney Mares/CNA
The funeral for Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, at the Vatican. Vatican Media
Archbishop Georg Ganswein (left), longtime personal secretary of Pope Benedict XVI, kisses the coffin of friend and mentor at his funeral on Jan. 5, 2023, at the Vatican. Vatican Media
Cardinals attend the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023. Vatican Media
The coffin of Pope Benedict XVI is carried at his funeral Mass on Jan. 5, 2023, at the Vatican. Vatican Media
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
In all the rightly indignant ferment over appalling developments in the Rupnik Affair and the soap opera stramash over Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s richly deserved comeuppance, two news items worth everyone’s attention skated under the radar. The first […]
Statue of St. Peter in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Jul 15, 2024 / 12:45 pm (CNA).
The Vatican has said that two women have been hired for the specialized maintenance crew of St. Peter’s Basilica for the first time in its 500-year history.
While women have worked for the Fabbrica di San Pietro — the department that oversees maintenance, restoration, and repairs of the Vatican’s papal basilica — before, it is the first time women are officially part of the “Sanpietrini” maintenance staff, according to Vatican News.
Two teams of Sanpietrini “work simultaneously on a daily basis to fulfill their principal tasks of reception, stewardship, cleaning, and maintenance of the Vatican Basilica and its facilities respectively,” the basilica’s website says.
The two Italian women, 21 and 26 years of age, studied masonry and decorative and ornamental plastering at the basilica’s newly relaunched School of Fine Arts and Traditional Trades.
The Vatican basilica’s art and trades school started in 2022 to train up new laborers in artisanal artistic skills. The courses and room and board are offered to students without cost.
Father Enzo Fortunato, communications director for St. Peter’s Basilica, said the presence of women in the Fabbrica is not entirely new — there were women mosaic artists who worked in the Vatican’s mosaic studio for many years — but their entrance in the Sanpietrini corps is a novelty.
According to Vatican News, in the 1500s, some women and orphans who inherited family businesses from their deceased husbands or fathers were also employed by the Fabbrica under the same conditions as the deceased, male breadwinner.
In the past 500 years, other women in the artistic trades were also hired by the Fabbrica, which was founded with the laying of the foundation stone of St. Peter’s Basilica on April 18, 1506.
The maintenance crew takes its name from “sanpietrini,” also spelled “sampietrini,” the Italian name for the small, square stones that pave St. Peter’s Square and other historic streets in the center of Rome.
Father Matthias Opara was freed May 28, 2023, after spending three days in captivity in Nigeria’s Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri. / Credit: Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri
ACI Africa, May 30, 2023 / 12:30 pm (CNA).
Father Matthias Opara, a Niger… […]
Leave a Reply