When a pope dies, funerals and succession are settled like clockwork, but the Vatican ventures into terra incognita with the death of Benedict XVI, who resigned almost ten years ago.
Usually, the death of the sovereign pontiff triggers the rapid convocation of a conclave during which the cardinals elect his successor. A scenario necessarily excluded in the case of Benedict XVI, since Francis has already succeeded him in 2013.
Following the announcement of Joseph Ratzinger’s death on Saturday morning, the Vatican made a series of announcements showing that the entire ceremony had been carefully prepared.
Funeral presided over by François
According to the Apostolic Constitution promulgated in 1996 by John Paul II, a pope must be buried between four and six days after his death.
A provision respected to the letter since the funeral of Benedict XVI will be held in Place Saint-Pierre on Thursday January 5, five days after his death. The ceremony will begin at 8:30 a.m. local time.
On the other hand, a historic and unprecedented scene will mark this ceremony, yet another demonstration of the pomp dear to the Catholic Church: it is Pope Francis in person who will preside over the funeral of his predecessor, fueling one last time the saga of the “two popes “having cohabited for almost a decade in the smallest state in the world.
This ceremony will be “solemn but sober”, specified the director of the press service of the Holy See, Matteo Bruni.
The Vatican also announced that the body of Benedict XVI would be exposed from Monday to Wednesday under the golds of Saint Peter’s Basilica to allow the faithful to pay homage to him. Until then, his body will remain at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery, his residence in the heart of the Vatican gardens, where “official visits are not planned”.
In 2005, the body of John Paul II, the last pope to have died, was laid out before a solemn funeral in Saint Peter’s Square in the presence of numerous heads of state and government and crowned heads. The ceremony was presided over by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then all-powerful head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith who would later be elected by his peers to the throne of Saint Peter.
A million people had attended the funeral of the very charismatic Polish pope.
Although his popularity never reached that of John Paul II, the German pope, head of the Catholic Church from 2005 to 2013, is a former head of state and as such his funeral should also attract a crowd of high dignitaries and worshipers.
Buried in a crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica
Regarding the place of burial, tradition has also been respected since Benedict XVI will join his predecessors in one of the crypts located under Saint Peter’s Basilica.
At the end of the funeral, “the coffin of the sovereign pontiff emeritus will be carried in the basilica of Saint Peter and then in the caves of the Vatican [qui abritent les tombes papales] to be buried there,” the press service of the Holy See announced on Saturday.
Benedict XVI’s official biographer, German journalist Peter Seewald, revealed in 2020 that Benedict XVI wanted to be buried in the tomb of John Paul II, in the crypt of St. Peter. This tomb has been empty since the transfer of John Paul II’s coffin to a side chapel on the occasion of his beatification in 2011.
The Vatican did not specify on Saturday which crypt had been chosen for Benedict XVI, but whichever option is chosen, the last word will go to Francis.
Finally, when a pope dies, his pontifical ring, a ring made especially for each new pope and which was once used as a seal for documents, is also destroyed.
For Benedict XVI, the ring was only crossed out with an “X” on the papal arms after his renunciation, to make it unusable.