Benedict's Funeral "with Simplicity"

[Stone]

Benedict's Funeral "with Simplicity"

gloria.tv | December 31, 2022


Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni announced that Benedict received the Last Rites on Wednesday afternoon after Holy Mass.

He will lie-in-state in St. Peter’s Basilica from Monday January 2nd till Wednesday January 4th. Benedict XVI’s funeral will be presided by Francis on Thursday, January 5, in St Peter’s Square to allow the most possible people to assist in person.

In accordance with Benedict’s wishes, his funeral rites will take place "with simplicity." Benedict XVI will be buried in the Vatican Grottoes in the tomb of John XXIII, where John Paul II was initially laid to rest.

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, who founded the Benedict XVI Institute to make available Joseph Ratzinger’s collected works, told NcRegister.com that Benedict XVI will be remembered as “true doctor of the Church for Today” and a “great thinker.”

Archbishop Georg Gänswein said that Benedict told him in his last hours, “Please pray for me!"

For Gänswein the death means “a great and personal loss,” “I am deeply grateful and at the same time very sad.”