The Pope vindicated Benedict XVI’s «passionate search» to communicate the Gospel and urged the Church to «follow in his footsteps» at the solemn funeral he presided over in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, before tens of thousands of faithful, and with which he closed a period of atypical coexistence of two pontiffs in the Vatican.
«We too, clinging to the last words of the Lord and to the witness that marked his life, want, as an ecclesial community, to follow in his footsteps and entrust our brother into the hands of the Father: may these hands of mercy find their lamp lit with the oil of the Gospel, which he spread and witnessed during his life,» the Pontiff said in the homily of the Mass he concelebrated together with 120 cardinals, about 400 bishops and nearly 4,000 priests.
In front of the altar was placed the cypress coffin containing the mortal remains of the German Pope, with some personal objects of his pontificate, and the first rows were occupied by his family during his last years – his secretary, Georg Gänswein and the consecrated women of the Memores Domini who have dedicated themselves to his service.
The Pope quoted St. Gregory the Great, one of the four great Fathers of the Latin or Western Church, and said that he remained «afloat on the table of prayers». In this way, he praised «the conscience of the Pastor» who abandons himself to prayer: «He cannot bear alone what, in reality, he could never bear alone and, for this reason, he is capable of abandoning himself to prayer and to the care of the people entrusted to him».
BENEDICT, «FAITHFUL FRIEND OF THE BRIDEGROOM».
Although in his planned homily, the Pope only named his predecessor as «our brother» – he did not do so either at the canonization of John Paul II and John XXIII – in the final sentence he has referred directly to him by improvising his name. «Benedict, faithful friend of the Bridegroom (God), may your joy be perfect in hearing definitively and forever his voice,» he said. By contrast, at John Paul II’s funeral Mass in 2005, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger named him as many as eight times both as John Paul II and by his given name ‘Karol’.
Francis stressed that the faithful, like «the women of the Gospel» before the tomb of Jesus, pray before Benedict XVI «with the perfume of gratitude and the ointment of hope to show him, once again, that love that is not lost.» «It is the faithful People of God who, gathered together, accompany and entrust the life of the one who was their shepherd,» he said.
The ceremony, in which the Gospel readings were in English, Spanish and Italian, was attended by Queen Sofia on behalf of Spain, accompanied by the Minister of the Presidency, Felix Bolaños, and the Spanish Ambassador to the Holy See, Isabel Celaá. As it is not a state funeral, there are only two official delegations; those of Italy and Germany, the deceased’s native country, although authorities from other countries have also attended, but in a personal capacity, such as King Philippe of Belgium and his wife Matilda, or the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, among others.
It is not the first time that a Pope participates in the funeral of another Pope; in 1802, Pius VII received the mortal remains of Pius VI, who died in exile in France in 1799, and attended the solemn funeral mass in St. Peter’s.
As of this Saturday, there are no longer two Popes living together in the Church, even if one of them was only emeritus and the other reigning. Benedict XVI lived the last ten years retired from the world, dedicated to study and prayer, but his figure has been instrumentalized by a part of the Roman Curia against Francis, so his funeral and burial in the Vatican caves mark a new beginning for the Argentine Pope who in March will complete ten years of pontificate.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
