Photo: Thousands gather at the Vatican for the funeral of the late Pope Benedict XVI (Credit: Reuters photos)
Supporters of former Pope Benedict XVI who died on December 31, 2022, demanded that the late pontiff be made a saint during his funeral at the Vatican on Thursday.
The funeral, which was presided by Pope Francis had no fewer than 50,000 people, including many from his native Germany, who poured into St. Peter’s Square for the historic event.
Pope Francis honoured his predecessor Benedict XVI, the German theologian who made history by retiring, presiding over a rare requiem mass for a dead pontiff by a living one before thousands of mourners in St. Peter’s Square.
Bells tolled and the faithful applauded as pallbearers carried Benedict’s cypress coffin out of the fog-shrouded basilica and rested it before the altar.
Benedict’s longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, bent down and kissed a book of the Gospels that was left open on the coffin.
Pope Francis, wearing the crimson vestments typical of papal funerals, opened the service with a prayer and closed it an hour later by solemnly blessing the simple casket — decorated only with the former pope’s coat of arms.
Francis didn’t mention Benedict’s specific legacy in his homily and only uttered his name once, in the final line, delivering instead a meditation on Jesus’ willingness to entrust himself to God’s will.
“Holding fast to the Lord’s last words and to the witness of his entire life, we too, as an ecclesial community, want to follow in his steps and to commend our brother into the hands of the Father,” Francis said at the end.
Heads of state and royalty, clergy from around the world and thousands of regular people flocked to the ceremony.
This was despite Benedict’s requests for simplicity and official efforts to keep the first funeral for a pope emeritus in modern times low-key.
The event was also significant for what it lacked: the feeling of uncertainty that would normally accompany the passing of a pope before a new one is elected.
With Francis very much in charge, Benedict’s death marked the end of an unusual decade in which a reigning pope lived alongside a retired one.
“Benedict has been the bridge between [St. John Paul II] and Francis,” said Alessandra Aprea, a 56-year-old from Meta di Sorrento near Naples.
“We could not have Francis without him.”
Ignoring exhortations for decorum at the end, some in the crowd held banners or shouted “Santo Subito!”
“Sainthood Now!” — echoing the spontaneous chants that erupted during John Paul’s 2005 funeral.
The former Joseph Ratzinger, who died on Dec. 31 at age 95, is considered one of the 20th century’s greatest theologians.
He spent his lifetime upholding church doctrine but he will go down in history for becoming the first pope in six centuries to do so.
Pope Francis praised Benedict’s courage to step aside, saying it “opened the door” to other popes doing the same.
Francis, for his part, recently said he had already left written instructions outlining the conditions in which he too would resign.
The Vatican said some 50,000 people attended the Mass, after some 200,000 paid their respects during the three days of public viewing.
Only Italy and Germany were invited to send official delegations, but other leaders took the Vatican up on its offer to come in their “private capacity.”
They included several heads of state, at least four prime ministers and two delegations of royal representatives. In addition, a host of patriarchs joined 125 cardinals in the seats to the side of the altar.
Canada’s head of mission to the Holy See, M. Paul Gibbard, represented Canada at the funeral mass, a Global Affairs spokesperson told CBC News.
Matteo Colonna, a 20-year-old seminarian from Teramo, Italy, said he came in part because of the historic nature of the funeral — but also because it had personal resonance for him.
“The first spark of my vocation started under the pontificate of Benedict, but then it became even stronger under Pope Francis,” Colonna said, while sitting in prayer in St. Peter’s Square ahead of the funeral.
“I see a continuity between these two popes and the fact that today Francis is celebrating the funeral in Benedict’s memory is a historical event.”
Many mourners also hailed from Benedict’s native Bavaria in Germany.
“We came to pay homage to Benedict and wanted to be here today to say goodbye,” said Raymond Mainar, who travelled from a small village east of Munich for the funeral. “He was a very good pope.”
Early Thursday the Vatican released the official history of Benedict’s life, a short document in Latin that was placed in a metal cylinder in his coffin before it was sealed, along with the coins and medallions minted during his papacy and his pallium stoles.
The document gave ample attention to Benedict’s historic resignation and referred to him as “pope emeritus,” citing verbatim the Latin words he uttered on Feb. 11, 2013, when he announced he would retire.
The document, known as a “rogito,” or deed, also cited his theological and papal legacy, including his outreach to Anglicans and Jews and his efforts to combat clergy sexual abuse, “continually calling the church to conversion, prayer, penance and purification.”
During St. John Paul II’s quarter-century as pope, Ratzinger spearheaded a crackdown on dissent as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
He took action against the left-leaning liberation theology that spread in Latin America in the 1970s and against dissenting theologians and nuns who didn’t toe the Vatican’s hard line on matters like sexual morals.
His legacy was marred by the clergy sexual abuse scandal, even though he recognized earlier than most the “filth” of priests who raped children, and actually laid the groundwork for the Holy See to punish them.
As cardinal and pope, he passed sweeping church legislation that resulted in 848 priests being defrocked from 2004-2014, roughly his pontificate with a year on either end.
But abuse survivors still held him responsible for the crisis, for failing to sanction any bishop who moved abusers around and identifying him as embodying the clerical system that long protected the institution over victims.
A group representing German clergy abuse survivors called on German officials attending Benedict’s funeral to demand more action from the Vatican on sexual abuse.
Eckiger Tisch asked German leaders to demand that Francis issue a “universal church law” stipulating zero tolerance in dealing with abuse by clergy.
“Any celebration that marks the life of abuse enablers like Benedict must end,” said the main U.S. abuse survivor group SNAP.
After the mass, Benedict’s cypress coffin was placed inside a zinc one, then an outer oak casket.
The Vatican confirmed he was entombed in the crypt in the grottos underneath St. Peter’s Basilica that once held the tomb of St. John Paul II before it was moved upstairs.
