VATICAN CITY – A steady stream of tens of thousands of people filed into St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday to pay their respects to former Pope Benedict XVI at the start of three days of laying in state ahead of his funeral.
Benedict died on Saturday at the age of 95 in the secluded Vatican monastery where he had lived since his shock resignation in 2013.
Benedict’s body, dressed in red and gold liturgical vestments and placed on a simple dais, was moved in a procession just before dawn through the Vatican Gardens from the monastery to a spot in front of the main altar of Christendom’s largest Church.
Two Swiss Guards stood at attention on either side of the body, which bore no papal insignia or regalia, such as a crosier, the silver staff with a crucifix, or a pallium, a band of cloth worn around the neck worn by archdiocesan bishops.
Both were on Pope John Paul’s body when it lay in state in 2005.
Security was tight, with visitors going through several check points before entering the basilica. Many stopped to pray after viewing the body or stayed to attend Mass in side chapels.
Before the Church was opened to the public, Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Georgia Meloni were the first outsiders to pay their respects.
Benedict’s closest aide, Archbishop Georg Ganswein, sat in the first pew to the side of the body along with Benedict’s household and medics who looked after him in his final days.
After a few hours, they rose to pray before the body. Ganswein stayed behind to receive condolences from visitors.
“I had to come,” Sri, a woman visiting from Jakarta, Indonesia, told Reuters. “He was the pope and I am a Catholic,” she said, declining to give her surname.
“I feel like he was a grandfather to us,” Veronica Siegal, 16, a Catholic high school student from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who is in Rome for a program of religious study, told Reuters in St. Peter’s Square after viewing the body.
She said she had read one of Benedict’s books on Jesus for one of her courses.
“I know that he is in a better place because he was a holy man and he led so well,” said her classmate, Molly Foley, also 16, from Atlanta, Georgia. A third girl in the group wore an American flag on her back.
SIMPLE RITES
Benedict will lie in state until Wednesday evening. His funeral will be held on Thursday in St Peter’s Square and be presided over by Pope Francis. The Vatican has said it will be a simple, solemn and sober ceremony in keeping with Benedict’s wishes.
The Vatican has painstakingly held elaborate rituals for what happens after a reigning pope dies but none for a former pope, so what happens in the next few days could become the template for future ex-popes.
While the number of visitors was large, there were no signs of the huge crowds who came to pay their respects to Pope John Paul II, when millions waited for hours to enter the basilica.
In 2020, Benedict’s authorized biographer, Peter Seewald, was quoted as telling Bavarian newspaper Passauer Neue Presse that the emeritus pope had prepared a spiritual testament stating that he wanted to be buried in the same crypt where John Paul II was originally laid to rest.
During his eight-year papacy, Benedict, a methodical, shy and very private German, had a hard time filling the shoes of the charismatic John Paul, inviting constant comparison in the media and among the faithful of the 1.3 billion member Church.
On Sunday, Pope Francis marked the Roman Catholic Church’s traditional World Day of Peace but the start of the new year at the Vatican was overshadowed by the death of his predecessor
Francis presided at a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica as the body of Benedict was being prepared for three days of public viewing in the same church starting Monday.
On Sunday the Vatican released the first images of the late Benedict, showing him dressed in red and gold liturgical vestments and laying in state in the chapel of the monastery where he died.
His body will be moved privately to the basilica, unlike what followed the death in 2005 of Pope John Paul, whose body was moved in a solemn outdoor procession that was televised live around the world.
It will be the first time in many centuries that a sitting pope will preside at the funeral of his predecessor. Benedict, who stepped down in 2013, had been the first pontiff in 600 years to resign.
January 1 is also the feast of the Mother of God and in his homily, Francis asked the Madonna to accompany “our beloved” Pope Emeritus Benedict “on his passage from this world to God.”
Benedict was also remembered in one of the prayers at the Mass.
In his homily, Francis urged his listeners to work actively for peace, and not “waste time glued to a keyboard in front of a computer screen” but to “dirty our hands and to do some good.”
Later at his Sunday blessing in St. Peter’s Square, Francis made another appeal for an end to the conflict in Ukraine, saying it was “intolerable contrast” with the theme of the day.
PRAISE, CRITICISM
On Saturday night, the Vatican released Benedict’s two-page “spiritual testimony” written in 2006, a year after his election as pope. There was no explanation why Benedict did not update it as he became older and more frail.
In it, he asked in a general, spiritual way, that God would welcome him to internal life “despite all my sins and insufficiencies.”
Francis on Saturday called Benedict a noble, kind man who was a gift to the Church and the world.
While tributes to the former pope continued to be made by world leaders, and conservative members of the faithful, others were highly critical of his pontificate.
Some recalled the severe discipline he meted out to progressive theologians, particularly in Latin America, when he was head of the Vatican’s doctrinal department under Pope John Paul II. Those actions prompted liberal Catholics to dub then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger “God’s Rottweiler.”
And while some have credited Benedict with taking important steps to formalize the Vatican’s response to clergy sexual abuse, victims groups accused him of protecting the institution at all costs.
“In our view, the death of Pope Benedict XVI is a reminder that, much like John Paul II, Benedict was more concerned about the Church’s deteriorating image and financial flow to the hierarchy versus grasping the concept of true apologies followed by true amends to victims of abuse,” the anti-abuse group SNAP said.
Like many Vatican officials who worked with Benedict, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet said he believed the German pontiff had left behind “a great legacy” as a man of God and a man of culture.
“I believe this is also a task for the future, to deeply rethink the Christian faith in the face of the challenges of our time,” Ouellet told Reuters.
PRAYERS FROM MANILA
As the public viewing of Pope Emeritus Benedict’s remains begins at the Vatican, the Manila Cathedral has opened one of its chapels to welcome those who may want to offer prayers and light candles for the late former pontiff.
In a social media post, the Manila Cathedral said it has opened its Christ the King Chapel to welcome those who may want to give their final respects.
“The Christ the King Chapel inside the Manila Cathedral is now open for the faithful, who may want to offer prayers, light candles, and write in the book of condolences for our dearly departed Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI,” said the Manila Cathedral.
Manila Archbishop Cardinal Jose Advincula opened the chapel on late Saturday by offering prayers for the late former pope. In a message, he asked the faithful to learn from Benedict’s teachings.
“Let us honor the memory of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI by learning from his preaching and following his example of Christian life,” said Advincula.
“We remember him for courageously witnessing to the Gospel in our modern world marred by fractures and skepticism. He prophetically warned us against the ‘dictatorship of relativism,’ from which our post-truth world is now suffering,” said Advincula.
He also noted Benedict constantly reminded the faithful on the fundamental core of Christian life.
“We were profoundly struck when he reminded us of the fundamental core of Christian life, which is to experience the absolute love of Jesus and fully respond to His love,” said Advincula. — Reuters and Gerard Naval
