Before the wooden coffin is closed, Pope Benedict XVI’s personal secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein and Monsignor Diego Giovanni Ravelli, the Vatican’s lead master of ceremonies for papal liturgies, place a white veil over the late pope’s face. The action on Jan. 4, 2023, is part of the funeral rites for popes. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Nov 20, 2024 / 12:55 pm (CNA).
The Vatican has updated the liturgical book regulating the funeral rite of popes, simplifying some of the rituals at Pope Francis’ request.
The second edition of the Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis (“Order of Funerals for Roman Pontiffs”) is a revision of the version published in 2000 and used for the funerals of Pope John Paul II in 2005 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2023.
Among the changes in the new edition, according to Vatican News, is the elimination of the use of three coffins of cyprus, lead, and oak, and the possibility for a deceased pope to be buried outside of the Vatican basilica.
Another change is that the public viewing before the funeral will take place with the remains already in a simple, wooden coffin, not on a raised bier, as was previously done. The ascertainment of the pope’s death will also happen in the pope’s chapel, not his room.
Pope Francis “has stated on several occasions the need to simplify and adapt certain rites so that the celebration of the funeral of the bishop of Rome may better express the faith of the Church in the risen Christ,” the master of papal ceremonies, Archbishop Diego Ravelli, told Vatican News.
“The renewed rite,” Ravelli said, “also needed to emphasize even more that the funeral of the Roman pontiff is that of a pastor and disciple of Christ and not of a powerful person of this world.”
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Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica, where Bernini’s gorgeous bronze monument to the Chair of Peter acts as a massive
bronze reliquary for the historic wooden chair. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Feb 22, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).
Every year on Feb. 22, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of the Chair of St. Peter, a tradition that dates back more than 1,600 years.
The feast honors not just a physical chair but what it represents: the authority of St. Peter, the first pope, and the unbroken line of his successors.
References to the “Chair of Peter” date back to the early centuries of Christianity. St. Jerome, a biblical scholar of the fourth century, wrote in a letter: “I follow no leader save Christ, so I enter into communion with … the Chair of Peter, for this I know is the rock upon which the Church is built.”
The feast itself has been celebrated on Feb. 22 since at least A.D. 336, according to Monsignor Tiziano Ghirelli, a canon of St. Peter’s Basilica. By the fifth century, its importance had grown, with the imperial family participating in celebrations at the old St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome in 450 and 467.
The word “cathedra” refers to the seat of the bishop, which is why the mother church of a diocese is known as a cathedral. The bishop of Rome, as Peter’s successor, holds a unique role in guiding the Church.
The Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica, where Bernini’s bronze monument to the Chair of Peter acts as a massive bronze reliquary for the historic wooden chair. Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Benedict XVI explained in a 2006 catechesis that the Chair of Peter “is the symbol of the bishop’s authority and in particular, of his ‘magisterium,’ that is, the evangelical teaching which, as a successor of the apostles, he is called to safeguard and to transmit to the Christian community.”
The phrase “ex cathedra” — Latin for “from the chair” — is still used to describe the pope’s most authoritative teachings.
“Celebrating the ‘chair’ of Peter means attributing a strong spiritual significance to it and recognizing it as a privileged sign of the love of God, the eternal Good Shepherd, who wanted to gather his whole Church and lead her on the path of salvation,” Benedict said.
Yes, there is actually a chair relic kept in St. Peter’s Basilica
In addition to the symbolic meaning, there is also a physical relic known as the Chair of St. Peter housed in St. Peter’s Basilica.
The wooden chair, dating back to the ninth century, was displayed for public veneration last fall amid the restoration efforts underway in the basilica.
Prior to that, the chair was last publicly exhibited in 1867, when Pope Pius IX allowed it to be seen for 12 days to mark the 1,800th anniversary of the martyrdom of Peter and Paul. Before that, the chair had not been seen since 1666 when it was first encased inside Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s monumental bronze sculpture under the stained-glass Dove of the Holy Spirit window at the basilica’s apse.
Historical records indicate that the wooden chair was likely a gift from Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Bald to Pope John VIII in 875. It features ivory panels depicting scenes from Greek mythology, including the labors of Hercules.
Pope Francis venerates the chair of St. Peter at the Synod on Synodality closing Mass on Oct. 27, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media
During the Middle Ages, the popes were solemnly enthroned on the chair. Innocent III used the wooden chair for his consecration on Feb. 22, 1198.
“Since the 11th century, the feast of Feb. 22 has been celebrated in Rome, and at the Vatican Basilica, with particular emphasis,” Ghirelli explained.
Bernini’s monument
In the 17th century, Pope Alexander VII commissioned Bernini to create an elaborate reliquary to house the chair. Bernini’s design, completed in 1666, features a gilded bronze throne elevated above the ground crowned by a stained-glass window depicting the Holy Spirit as a dove.
The structure is supported by statues of four doctors of the Church — two from the West, St. Augustine and St. Ambrose, and two from the East, St. John Chrysostom and St. Athanasius — symbolizing the unity of the Church through the ages, bringing together the teachings of both the Latin and Greek Church Fathers.
Above the throne, cherubs hold a papal tiara and keys, a reference to the authority given to Peter in the Gospel of Matthew: “You are Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my Church.”
A physical relic known as the Chair of St. Peter is housed in St. Peter’s Basilica. The wooden chair, dating back to the ninth century, was displayed for public veneration in the fall of 2024 amid the restoration efforts underway in the basilica. Credit: Matthew Bunson
Though the chair relic is once again enclosed within Bernini’s sculpture, visitors to St. Peter’s Basilica continue to pause before this symbol of the special mission of Peter and his successors to pray for the pope and his intentions.
“As we contemplate it with the wonder of faith,” Pope Francis said, “let us remember that this is the chair of love, unity, and mercy, according to Jesus’ command to the Apostle Peter not to lord it over others but to serve them in charity.”
Vatican City, May 20, 2019 / 11:19 am (CNA).- French bishops will meet with the children of priests in June to hear their testimonies of hidden suffering.
Monsignor Olivier Ribadeu Dumas, secretary of the French bishops’ conference, confirmed that three members of the French association Children of Silence will share their stories June 13 at the Bishops Conference of France headquarters in Paris, Le Monde reported.
The president of Children of Silence, Anne-Marie Jarzac, called the June meeting a welcome step. Jarzac met previously with Msgr. Dumas and Father Emmanuel Coquet in February in preparation for the June testimony.
“It was a very moving moment,” Jarzac told Le Monde. “For the first time, we felt that the Church opened its doors to us, that there was no more denial, but a listening and an awareness of what we have lived.”
Jarzac is the daughter of a priest and a nun. She leads the French association for children of priests with more than 50 members.
In February 2019, the Vatican confirmed the existence of an internal document from the Congregation of Clergy outlining criteria on the protection of children of priests. “Notes concerning the practice of the Congregation for the Clergy with regard to clerics with children” is a template document used to aid individual bishops dealing with these cases.
In many cases involving priestly paternity, priests either request dispensation or are dismissed from the clerical state because of the parental responsibility and obligation owed to the child.
“Each case is examined on its merits and its own particular circumstances,” Cardinal Beniamino Stella, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, told L’Osservatore Romano in an interview Feb. 27. Stella also noted that exceptions to the loss of the clerical state are rare.
“The child’s well-being and care of the child must be at the centre of attention for the Church, so that the child does not lack, not only the necessities of life, but especially the educative role and the affection of a father,” Cardinal Stella said.
The Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy also responded to claims that the existence of children of priests somehow undermines the value of priestly celibacy in the Church.
“The fact that some priests have experienced relationships and have brought children into the world does not affect the theme of priestly celibacy, which represents a precious gift for the Latin church, the ever-present value of which has been expressed by the recent Popes, from St. Paul VI to Pope Francis,” he said.
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