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
Vatican City, Jan 6, 2023 / 00:01 am (CNA).
There is no d… […]
Tabea Schneider (far left) with a group of other pilgrims who traveled 20 hours by bus from Cologne, Germany, to attend the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. / Courtney Mares / CNA
Vatican City, Jan 5, 2023 / 08:36 am (CNA).
Catholics from Germany, France, Ghana, India, Australia, Uganda, and many more countries who attended the funeral Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Thursday have shared their favorite memories of the late pope and why some decided to join in the chants of “santo subito” at the end of the ceremony.
More than 50,000 people attended the Jan. 5 funeral for the pope emeritus, who died at the age of 95 last Saturday.
Among those in the crowd for the funeral was Arthur Escamila, who got to know Benedict XVI personally during the 2008 World Youth Day in Australia.
“It was emotional seeing the coffin coming out of the basilica,” he told CNA.
Escamila, a numerary from Opus Dei, recalled how Benedict XVI rested for a few days in the Opus Dei center in Sydney where he was living at the time.
“I had the privilege of living together with him for three days in Sydney in 2008 just before World Youth Day. We spent three days together. I attended his Mass. I ate with him. I listened to music with him,” he said.
Benedict XVI was “very humble” and “approachable,” Escamila remembered. “From the beginning he learned my name. He addressed me by my first name and I was very impressed by that.”
“My father had recently died. He was interested in that and asked me questions about my father, my family. He wanted to know about his illness. So I was personally touched,” he said.
“So his death meant a lot because it was closing a chapter where I knew the pope emeritus personally and had a connection with him that was personal.”
Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the archbishop of Bombay, also spoke about his personal memories of Benedict XVI.
The cardinal, who traveled from India for the funeral, told CNA that he found the funeral “very moving” and a “fitting farewell for the Holy Father Emeritus.”
“He was a great theologian, the greatest of the 20th century I think. I personally … whenever I read any article, any book, any homily of his I always got a new insight into theology or spirituality. His was a great contribution for the Church,” Gracias said.
The Indian cardinal also expressed gratitude for the many ways that the former pope touched his life: “He created me cardinal. He appointed me archbishop of Bombay … and we met often. I was on the committee for the translation of liturgical texts and so we discussed much there.”
Father Albert Musinguzi from Uganda said that he felt “deep spiritual joy” at the funeral, especially because it was the first Mass he had ever concelebrated at the Vatican.
“Although we have lost a great man, we are not mourning. We are celebrating a spiritual giant, a great man, a gift to the Church and to the entire world because Pope Benedict was a man not only for the Church but for the entire world,” he said.
The priest from Uganda’s Archdiocese of Mbarara, currently studying in Rome, said that he believes that the late pope emeritus is a saint.
“Pope Benedict was a humble pope, but a great theologian. We have learned from his humility to approach God from the Word of God. But what I like most from his preaching is that God and science are not opposed to each other … And what touched me most recently in the life of Pope Benedict XVI were his last words,” Musinguzi said.
“As we know Pope Benedict was 95 years old, so for 71 years he has given homilies and innumerable essays. He has written 66 books, three encyclicals, four exhortations, and he has summarized all of them in four words, which were his last four words: ‘Jesus, I love you.’”
Tabea Schneider traveled 20 hours by bus from Cologne, Germany, with many other enthusiastic German pilgrims who spontaneously decided to come to Rome for the funeral. She said that she was very moved when Pope Francis touched the coffin of Benedict XVI.
“It was a very emotional moment,” she said.
A group of approximately 65 people from all across France traveled together to Rome for Benedict’s funeral.
The Famille Missionnaire de Notre-Dame, a men and women’s religious community, organized two buses.
After the funeral, the group prayed the Liturgy of the Hours outside St. Peter’s Square for the repose of the soul of Benedict XVI.
Members of the Famille Missionnaire de Notre Dame traveled to Rome from France for Benedict XVI’s funeral.
Here they are praying the liturgy of the hours for the late pope. pic.twitter.com/5eVQ2DT4OX
— Hannah Brockhaus (@HannahBrockhaus) January 5, 2023
Sister Maksymiliana Domini, originally from Poland, told CNA the group arrived on Tuesday evening and will depart the night of the funeral.
“We love Pope Benedict,” she said, adding that they wanted to honor him and his legacy.
The Famille Missionnarie de Notre-Dame, she said, feels very close to Benedict because of their shared love for the Church’s liturgy and for an interpretation of the Second Vatican Council in the hermeneutic of continuity.
“We are 100% aligned with him spiritually,” Domini said.
Father Anthony Agnes Adu Mensah from Accra, Ghana, said that he enthusiastically joined in the chants of “santo subito” at the end of the Mass.
“I feel in my heart that Pope Benedict is a saint,” the priest said.
Hannah Brockhaus contributed to this report.
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:
Before the wooden coffin is closed, 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 … […]
Pope Benedict XVI’s coffin is carried in St. Peter’s Basilica on Jan. 5, 2023. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Jan 5, 2023 / 06:14 am (CNA).
Benedict XVI was buried in the Vatican on Thursday in a strictly private ceremony.
His wooden coffin was placed in the crypt under the central part of St. Peter’s Basilica in the first tomb of St. John Paul II, following the Jan. 5 funeral Mass presided over by his successor, Pope Francis.
The casket was carried from St. Peter’s Square through the main entrance of St. Peter’s Basilica toward the altar, flanked by cardinals, before being brought to the crypt underneath.
Benedict XVI’s coffin was closed in the evening of Jan. 4 after three days of public visitation in St. Peter’s Basilica. The private ceremony took place in the presence of Benedict’s personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, and a number of cardinals, including Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
Before the casket was closed, a one-page summary in Latin of Benedict XVI’s papacy, called a “rogito” in Italian, was rolled into a metal cylinder and placed inside.
According to the Vatican, 195,000 people visited the body of Benedict XVI during the three days of public viewing.
He was laid to rest in the same tomb where St. John Paul II was buried before his beatification.
Before the burial, a ribbon was placed around the coffin, along with three seals: from the Apostolic Chamber, the Pontifical Household, and the office of liturgical celebrations. The coffin was then placed in a zinc coffin and sealed.
The zinc coffin was placed in another wooden coffin and then entombed on the north side of the central part of the Vatican crypt. On the wall above the spot there is an image of the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus flanked by angels.
Queen Christina of Sweden, who died on April 19, 1689, is buried in a sarcophagus immediately to the right.
Cardinals Giovanni Battista Re, Pietro Parolin, Angelo De Donatis, Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, Edgar Peña Parra, Mauro Gambetti, and the consecrated women of the pope emeritus’ household were present for the closing of the coffin on Jan. 4.
St. John Paul II’s tomb was in the crypt from the date of his funeral April 8, 2005, until April 29, 2011, when his casket was moved to the upper part of St. Peter’s Basilica a few days before his beatification ceremony.
Watch EWTN’s coverage of the funeral Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI / EWTN
Vatican City, Jan 5, 2023 / 04:50 am (CNA).
Tens of thousands of people were present in St. Peter’s Square for the funeral Thursday of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, a leading theologian of the 20th century and the first pope to resign from office in nearly 600 years.
Because the Mass began at 9:30 a.m. Rome time (3:30 a.m. ET) many people in the U.S. and elsewhere were not able to watch it live. You can watch EWTN’s live coverage in the YouTube video at the bottom of the story. EWTN will rebroadcast the Mass on its cable network Thursday at 2:30 p.m. ET and again at 9 p.m. ET.
The funeral Mass was simple and solemn, in accord with Benedict XVI’s wishes. The Sistine Chapel Choir sang the “Salve Regina,” “In Paradisum,” and other hymns. An image of the resurrection of Christ was hung from St. Peter’s Basilica behind the altar.
Royalty, cardinals, patriarchs, government officials, and many Catholic families and religious attended the funeral on a cold and foggy morning at the Vatican. More than 3,700 priests concelebrated the Mass.
Cardinals Joseph Zen, Daniel DiNardo, Timothy Dolan, Gianfranco Ravasi, and Giuseppe Betori, all cardinals created by Benedict, were seated in the front row. The Vatican said 125 cardinals concelebrated.
The ceremony began with the transport of the pope emeritus’ wooden coffin from the basilica to St. Peter’s Square.
Pope Francis presided over the funeral for his predecessor. In his homily, Francis reflected on Jesus’ final words on the cross: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
“God’s faithful people, gathered here, now accompany and entrust to him the life of the one who was their pastor,” he said. You can read CNA’s full report on the funeral here, and the full text of Pope Francis’ homily here.
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
Vatican City, Jan 5, 2023 / 03:21 am (CNA).
Tens of thousands of people were present in St. Peter’s Square for the funeral Thursday of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, a leading theologian of the 20th century and the first pope to resign from office in nearly 600 years.
Royalty, cardinals, patriarchs, government officials, and many Catholic families and religious attended the funeral on a cold and foggy morning at the Vatican. More than 3,700 priests concelebrated the Mass.
Cardinals Joseph Zen, Daniel DiNardo, Timothy Dolan, Gianfranco Ravasi, and Giuseppe Betori, all cardinals created by Benedict, were seated in the front row. The Vatican said 125 cardinals concelebrated.
The ceremony began with the transport of the pope emeritus’ wooden coffin from the basilica to St. Peter’s Square.
Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Benedict’s personal secretary, approached the coffin, knelt before it, and kissed it. The crowd then prayed the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary in Latin for the repose of the soul of the late pope.
The funeral Mass was simple and solemn, in accord with Benedict XVI’s wishes. The Sistine Chapel Choir sang the “Salve Regina,” “In Paradisum,” and other hymns.
An image of the resurrection of Christ was hung from St. Peter’s Basilica behind the altar.
Pope Francis presided over the funeral for his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
In his homily, he reflected on Jesus’ final words on the cross: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
“God’s faithful people, gathered here, now accompany and entrust to him the life of the one who was their pastor,” he said.
“Like the women at the tomb,” he said, “we too have come with the fragrance of gratitude and the balm of hope, in order to show him once more the love that is undying. We want to do this with the same wisdom, tenderness and devotion that he bestowed upon us over the years.”
Benedict XVI died on Dec. 31 at the age of 95. As confirmed by Archbishop Gänswein, his last words were “Signore, ti amo!” (“Lord, I love you”).
Nearly 200,000 people came to see Benedict XVI lying in state inside St. Peter’s Basilica in the days ahead of the funeral.
“Together, we want to say: ‘Father, into your hands we commend his spirit,’” Francis said in his homily. “Benedict, faithful friend of the Bridegroom, may your joy be complete as you hear his voice, now and forever.”
The Vatican only invited two official state delegations — from Italy and Germany — to the funeral, but some heads of state and public figures decided to attend in an unofficial capacity.
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, and Slovenian President Nataša Pirc Musar came to the Vatican to attend the ceremony, along with European royals Queen Sofia of Spain and King Philip and Queen Mathilde of Belgium.
In the Prayers of the Faithful, the second prayer was said in German: “For Pope Emeritus Benedict, who has fallen asleep in the Lord: May the eternal Shepherd receive him into his kingdom of light and peace.”
The readings for the Mass were Isaiah 29:16–19 in Spanish; Psalm 23 sung in Latin; 1 Peter 1: 3–9 in English, and the Gospel of Luke 23:39–46 read in Italian.
At the end of the funeral Mass, Pope Francis presided over the Final Commendation and Valediction, which were followed by a moment of silent prayer.
Pope Francis approached with a cane and prayed while touching the wooden coffin of his predecessor.
Bells tolled and the crowd applauded as Benedict XVI’s coffin was carried into St. Peter’s Basilica to his place of burial in the basilica crypt. People waved flags and banners, including one that said “Santo Subito,” calling for Benedict’s immediate canonization.
Born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, he was elected to the papacy in April 2005, taking the name Benedict XVI, after decades of service to the Catholic Church as a theologian, prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, cardinal, and one of the closest collaborators of St. John Paul II, whom he succeeded as pope.
Widely recognized as one of the Catholic Church’s top theologians, Benedict’s pontificate was marked by a profound understanding of the challenges to the Church in the face of growing ideological aggression, not least from an increasingly secular Western mindset, both within and outside the Church. He famously warned about the “dictatorship of relativism” in a homily just before the conclave in 2005 that elected him pope.
On Feb. 11, 2013, the 85-year-old Benedict shocked the world with a Latin-language announcement of his retirement, becoming the first pope in 600 years to do so. He cited his advanced age and his lack of strength as unsuitable to the exercise of his office.
Reflecting on life after death in an Angelus message on Nov. 2, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI said eternal life will be like “immersing yourself in the ocean of infinite love where time — a before and an after — no longer exists. Fullness of life and joy: This is what we hope for and expect from our being with Christ.”
Pope Francis gives his message during the weekly general audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Jan. 4, 2023 / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Jan 4, 2023 / 02:30 am (CNA).
Benedict XVI “always wanted to accompany us in the encounter with Jesus,” Pope Francis said at the start of his weekly public audience on Wednesday.
The pope began his message Jan. 4 with a reference to his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died on Dec. 31 at the age of 95. The body of Benedict XVI is lying in state in St. Peter’s Basilica Jan. 2-4, before his funeral on Jan. 5.
“Before beginning this catechesis,” Francis said in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, “I would like us to join with those here beside us who are paying their respects to Benedict XVI, and to turn my thoughts to him, a great master of catechesis.”
Catechesis means religious instruction or teaching.
“His acute and gentle thought was not self-referential, but ecclesial, because he always wanted to accompany us in the encounter with Jesus,” he said.
“Jesus, Crucified and Risen, the Living One and the Lord, was the destination to which Pope Benedict led us, taking us by the hand,” the pope added. “May he help us rediscover in Christ the joy of believing and the hope of living.”
Pope Francis’ message on Wednesday was the final instruction in a series on the theme of discernment.
One of the important tools to support discernment, he said, is spiritual accompaniment, also called spiritual direction.
“It’s very important not to walk alone,” he underlined, encouraging Catholics to find a spiritual director, a lay person or a priest, who can help to “unmask misunderstandings, even grave ones, in our consideration of ourselves and our relationship with the Lord.”
The pope compared the experience of discernment without accompaniment to looking at yourself alone in a mirror: you can imagine things that are not there or see things in a distorted way.
“God’s grace in us always works on our nature. Thinking of a Gospel parable, we can always compare grace to the good seed and nature to the soil,” Francis said. “First of all, it is important to make ourselves known, without fear of sharing the most fragile aspects, where we find ourselves to be more sensitive, weak, or afraid of being judged.”
He emphasized that the person who accompanies us in our spiritual journey does not replace or substitute the Lord, but “walks alongside him or her, encouraging them to interpret what is stirring in their heart, the quintessential place where the Lord speaks.”
The Church commonly calls someone in this role a “spiritual director,” but Pope Francis said he prefers the name “spiritual companion.”
“Discernment is an art, an art that can be learned and which has its own rules,” he said. “If learned well, it enables spiritual experience to be lived in an ever more beautiful and orderly manner. Above all, discernment is a gift from God, which must always be asked for, without ever presuming to be expert and self-sufficient.”
The pope said the act of recounting our life, experiences, and spiritual searching in front of someone else can bring clarity.
It can also, he added, bring to light “the many thoughts that dwell within us, and which often unsettle us with their insistent refrains — how often, in dark times, have these thoughts come to us: ‘I have done everything wrong, I am worthless, no-one understands me, I will never succeed, I am destined for failure,’ and so on.”
“False and poisonous thoughts, that the exchange with another helps to unmask, so we can feel we are loved and valued by the Lord for what we are, capable of doing good things for him,” he said.
Let us pray, Francis concluded: “Lord, give me the grace to discern. In life’s moments, help me to know what I should do. And send me the people who can help me discern.”
Pope Benedict XVI signs an apostolic exhortation on Nov. 19, 2011, in Benin. / Credit: Vatican Media
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 3, 2023 / 14:30 pm (CNA).
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Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal George Pell in Australia. / Credit: EWTN
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