For a second day, lines of people wanting to honor Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s service to the Catholic church snaked around St. Peter’s Square on Tuesday to view the late retired pontiff’s body.
Nuns arrive at dawn to view the body of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI as it lies in state in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Jan. 3, 2023.
Benedict, 95, died Saturday after 10 years in an extraordinary papal retirement lived out in a monastery in the Vatican Gardens. Pope Francis will celebrate the funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Thursday.Although the Vatican has stressed that Benedict wanted “simplicity” to characterize his funeral, Bruni said the liturgy will “in great detail be that of pontifical ceremonies ... with some original elements.
By several hours into the second day of public viewing, nearly 100,00 people had filed past the bier in front of the basilica’s main altar since Monday. While the rank-and-file mourners caught a glimpse of Benedict’s body, two influential U.S. churchmen, Cardinals Timothy Dolan of New York and Sean Patrick O’Malley of Boston, attended Mass in the basilica at an altar just behind the central viewing area.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was among those at the basilica, whose doors opened before dawn. Like Benedict, Orbán has crusaded for a revival of what European conservatives view as the continent’s Christian roots. “I believe there’s no real war or competition within the church and between popes. The church lives and grows every day, also thanks to their words,” he said.
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