That is in line with the wishes of former Pope Benedict XVI, who died on Saturday at age 95, who wanted his funeral tomorrow at 4:30 p.m., Manila time, to be “simple, solemn and sober.”
Papal funerals have consistently drawn heads of state and government from round the world, but the Vatican has said that official delegations will come only from Italy and from Benedict’s native Germany, where he was born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, suggesting the event will be relatively low key.
Representatives from other countries or organizations can attend in a private capacity, diplomats have been told.
The Vatican has confirmed that after the ceremony, to be presided over by Benedict XVI’s successor’s Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina 86 years ago),
Benedict’s body will be taken back inside St. Peter’s Basilica.
The body will be buried in the Vatican Grottoes, beneath the church, where more than 90 popes have found their final resting place.
In 2020, Benedict’s authorized biographer, Peter Seewald, was quoted as telling Bavarian newspaper Passauer Neue Presse the emeritus pope had prepared a spiritual testament stating he wanted to be buried in the same crypt where John Paul II was originally laid to rest in 2005.
John Paul’s body was later moved following his beatification in 2011 to a chapel on the main level of the basilica next to the one where Michelangelo’s Pieta is displayed.
The German-born Benedict was the first pope in 1,000 years to resign from office, saying on Feb. 11, 2013, that the modern world was changing so quickly and profoundly that someone of his age and era was “no longer suited” to the papacy.
He was 85 at the time. When he was elected on April 19, 2005, he was already the oldest pope in centuries.
Benedict, who stood as a totally orthodox man, shocked the world with his unconventional decision to resign in 2013.
Some immediately praised the decision as an expression of humility; others said it made the office look a bit like a secular CEO.
The surprise, and the orthodox instinct to cast things as being totally in keeping with the past, led many Vatican experts to spend the day arguing about what verb to use to describe his action, because “retiring” seemed technically impossible.
His body has been on display in an open casket at St Peter’s Basilica, with people, including some Filipinos, allowed to pay their respects until 7pm each evening.
The four popes who resigned in the past 1,000 years before Pope Benedict XVI were: Pope Benedict IX, in 1045; Pope Gregory VI, in 1046; Pope Celestine V, in 1294: and Pope Gregory XII, in 1415.
The last resignation occurred when Gregory stepped down to end the Western Schism in the Catholic Church.
As the clock keeps ticking closer to the funeral hour, we join the 1.3 billion Catholic faithful at home and overseas in mourning the death of the pontiff known for criticizing what he saw as the modern world’s rejection of God and Christianity’s timeless truths.
