Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died, funeral on January 5th
The Pope Ratzinger was 95 years old and in the last few days his condition had worsened. Pope Francis had asked the world to pray for him.
With pain I inform you that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, passed away today at 9:34 am, in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican”.
With this press release, the Director of the Press Office of the Holy See, Matteo Bruni, announced the death of the pontiff who preceded Pope Bergoglio.
Pope Ratzinger was 95 years old and in the last few days his conditions had worsened. Pope Francis had asked the faithful to pray for him.
Benedict XVI, the first Pope emeritus after his historic resignation from the pontificate in February 2013, ended his earthly journey this morning.
“It is with pain that I inform you that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, passed away today at 9.34 am, in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican”, reported the director of the Press Office of the Holy See, Matteo Bruni, also announcing that from the morning of Monday 2 January , the body of Joseph Ratzinger will be in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican for the greeting of the faithful.
And while the news immediately went around the world, messages and testimonies of condolences began to arrive from every continent.
In the Vatican press room, which immediately filled up with reporters, photographers and television crews from all over the world, at noon Bruni gave a terse briefing, explaining that the funeral of Benedict XVI will be celebrated on Thursday 5 January, at 9.30, in Piazza San Peter and will be presided over by Pope Francis.
“Stand firm in the faith! Do not be confused! … Jesus Christ is truly the way, the truth and the life—and the Church, for all her insufficiencies, is truly his body.”
This is one of the spiritual bequests that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI entrusts to the faithful in his will, which is published in the book Nothing but the truth written by Archbishop Georg Gänswein, his private secretary, with Saverio Gaeta, for the Piemme editions and out in early January. This is what ANSA learns in preview.
In line with the wishes of the Pope emeritus, his funeral will be held in the name of simplicity. They will be solemn but sober”, said the Vatican spokesman. “The explicit request on the part of the Pope emeritus is that everything be in the name of simplicity, as regards the funerals, the rites, the gestures of this time of pain”, he said:
This concludes the days of great apprehension over the Pope’s aggravated condition, which began last Wednesday when, at the end of the general audience in Sala Nervi, Pope Francis asked the faithful to say a “special prayer” for his predecessor, who was “very ill”. , “asking the Lord to console him, to support him in this testimony of love for the Church, until the end”.
