“Holy now”: it is the appeal of the faithful punctuated in the choirs at the end of the funeral, it is the slogan of many placards in St. Peter’s Square, it is the sentiment of the people on the wave of emotion for the loss of Benedict XVI who, despite the his shy and shy character, has made inroads into people’s hearts. 50,000, a little less than the initial forecasts, were in the Vatican for the funeral. Many authorities starting with the President of the Republic Giorgio Mattarella and the premier Giorgia Meloni.
Pope Francis: Blessed, faithful friend of the Bridegroom, may your joy be perfect
Pope Francis arrives in the square in a wheelchair and in his homily says he is “grateful” to God for Ratzinger’s wisdom. “We are here with the scent of gratitude and the ointment of hope to show him, once again, the love that is not lost; we want to do it with the same anointing, wisdom, delicacy and dedication that he has been able to bestow over the years,” Francis said in his homily at the funeral of Benedict XVI. “It is the faithful People of God who, gathered together, accompany and entrust the life of those who have been their shepherd”, he added. “Blessed, faithful friend of the Bridegroom, may your joy be perfect in hearing his voice definitively and forever”, he concluded.
From Queen Sofia to President Steinmeier
There are the authorities of the world, from the royals of Belgium and the queen mother Sofia of Spain to the German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, ministers and representatives of institutions from all over the world. For Benedetto, the former premier Mario Draghi also arrived in St. Peter’s Square. 130 cardinals, about three hundred bishops and 3,700 priests concelebrated with the Pope. Some cardinals have come from afar, card. Joseph Zen, over ninety, from Hong Kong, card. Luis Sako from Iraq, Patriarch Bechara Rai from Beirut, just to name a few of those present.
Meloni’s memory
Prime Minister Meloni recalls Benedict XVI thus: “An enlightened theologian who leaves us a spiritual and intellectual legacy made up of faith, trust and hope. We have the task of always preserving and honoring it and of carrying on its precious teachings”. In the Vatican, the queues begin at dawn on a humid day shrouded in fog so much that the Dome is hidden for a long time. Closed to traffic all the streets around and imposing security measures all around the Vatican. At the end of the morning, the prefect of Rome Bruno Frattasi congratulated all those who made the orderly conduct of the funeral possible: “The work carried out in recent days by the forces of order, by the fire brigade, by the police and by civil protection volunteers represent an excellent model of integrated security”, he underlined.
Burial in the Vatican grottoes
Upon the arrival of Benedict XVI’s coffin in St. Peter’s Square, carried by the chairs, just as is done with the Popes, the bells tolled for the dead. Then the crowd broke into a long applause. Then the solemn but sober celebration, which in the end manages to be contained in less than an hour and a half. Then the return to the basilica and then to the Vatican Grottoes to be buried. The homage to the tomb, which was that of Wojtyla, will not begin before Sunday.