Pope Francis grateful for ‘noble’ Benedict and his prayers
By FRANCES D’EMILIO and GIADA ZAMPANO | Associated Press
“With deep feeling, we recall his person, so noble, so gentle,” Pope Francis said. “And we feel in the heart so much gratitude: gratitude to God for having given him to the Church and to the world,” the pope said. “Gratitude to him, for all the good he did, and above all for his witness of faith and of prayer, especially in these last years of withdrawn life.
Within minutes of the announcement, words of praise and fond remembrance were offered by world leaders and religious figures, including the archbishop of Canterbury and Jewish advocates. While pope, Benedict was head of state, since the Vatican is an independent city state. But with no such role at the time of his death, the Vatican’s funeral details reflected a scaling back of pomp and protocol.
Starting on Monday morning, the faithful will be able to file by his body in St. Peter’s Basilica, and viewing will also be held on Tuesday and Wednesday. As the death announcement came, quietly by email from the Vatican press office, hundreds of tourists were admiring a towering Christmas tree in the square, many unaware that Benedict had died in his secluded residence in the Vatican Gardens.
While the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica didn’t toll to mark the death announcement, in the somber air in the small Bavarian town where Ratzinger was born in 1927, church bells tolled solemnly at St. Oswald Church in Marktl am Inn, a German town near the Austrian border. “He condemned antisemitism as a sin against God and man, and he emphasized the unique relationship between Christianity and Judaism,” the statement said.