Tens of thousands view the Body of Former Pope Benedict

Tens of thousands of people have visited St. Peter’s Basilica to pay their respects to former Pope Benedict XVI.

Before his funeral this week, his body lay in state and was free from any papal effects or garments.

Benedict, a hero among conservative Catholics who yearned to return to a more traditional Church, was killed on Saturday at the age 95. Vatican monastery, where he lived since 2013, when the pope became the first in 600 years to resign.

Visitors had to go through multiple security checks before they could enter the basilica. Many people stopped to pray or to go to side chapels to receive Mass after seeing the body.

According to the Vatican Police, over 40,000 people came by his body in the first five hours.

Filippo Tuccio 35 said he arrived from Venice in an overnight train to see Benedict’s corps. “I wanted to pay homage to Benedict because he had a key role in my life and my education,” Mr Tuccio said.

Veronica Siegal, a 16-year-old Catholic high school student from Baton Rouge (La.), told Reuters that she saw the body after she had seen it. “I feel like he was a grandfather to us.”

Siegal, who was visiting Rome for a programme of religious study, 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,” Molly Foley (16 years old), a classmate from Atlanta, Georgia, said the same. The American flag was also worn by a third member of the group.

The public viewing period was 10 hours on Monday and 12 on Tuesday and Wednesday.

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 on either side, at the attention of the body. The guards did not have any papal insignia or regalia such as a criser, the silver staff with the crucifix or a pallium. These were bands of cloth that were worn around the neck by archdiocesan priests.

Both were on Pope John Paul’s body when it lay in state in 2005.

Although it wasn’t clear if he would include the pastoral cross and any other items, the decision to not display them at the public viewing seems to have been taken to emphasise that he was not pope when he died.

Before the Church was open to the public, Sergio Mattarella, the Italian President, and Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, the Prime Minister of Georgia Meloni, were the first outsiders who paid 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 some time, they rose to offer prayers before the body. Ganswein was there to receive condolences.

“I had to come,” Sri, a woman from Jakarta, Indonesia told Reuters. “He was the pope and I am a Catholic,” She declined to give her surname, she said.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Benedict will be buried according to his wishes in the same spot in the crypts under St. Peter’s Basilica where Pope John Paul II was originally interred in 2005, before his body was moved up to a chapel in the basilica in 2011.

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 meticulously crafted rituals for what to do after a reigning Pope dies, but none for former popes. So what happens next could be the model for future ex-popes.

Bruni indicated that details for the funeral Mass had not been finalized.

The number of visitors to the basilica was not large but there was no sign of the enormous crowds that came to pay respects and pray for Pope John Paul II.

Reuters

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