Led by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Germany will attend the funeral service for Benedict XVI with the heads of the highest constitutional bodies. travel to Rome.
The Chancellor (SPD) agreed to participate in the public requiem for the Pope Emeritus on St. Peter’s Square, as a government spokesman confirmed. The funeral service for the former pope from Germany will take place on Thursday (9.30 a.m.) in the Vatican.
Shortly after Benedict’s death, Steinmeier announced that he would be attending the fair on New Year’s Eve. The Office of the Federal President has now confirmed that he will be accompanied by a delegation from all constitutional bodies. These include the Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD), Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD) as President of the Bundesrat and Stephan Harbarth, the head of the Federal Constitutional Court.
Strong relationship with Bavaria
A delegation led by Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) comes from Benedikt’s homeland of Bavaria, with representatives from politics, society and the church; part of this will travel to Rome on a chartered plane. According to his biographer Peter Seewald, Benedikt would have liked Bayern most to be mourners.
While there was always crunching between Benedict and the German bishops and “there were cross shots from this corner during the pontificate and afterwards that were completely incomprehensible,” Benedict’s relationship with Bavaria was “incredibly strong and unbroken until the end,” said Seewald the German Press Agency.
Papa Emeritus, who died on New Year’s Eve, was again publicly laid out in St. Peter’s Basilica on Tuesday. Unlike on Monday, the flow of visitors was spread throughout the day – there were no long queues in front of the admission controls and the doors of the basilica. By the evening, the Vatican gendarmerie had registered around 70,000 visitors, more than the previous day (around 65,000). One of them was Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who stood with his wife next to the remains of Benedict XVI. prayed
Funeral details
Meanwhile, the Holy See announced further details of the funeral service and burial on Thursday. Although Benedict was no longer the incumbent pontiff, he would have a ceremony and a burial like a pope, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told journalists. There are small changes compared to the usual ceremony. Among other things, prayers that are actually intended for a conclave at the celebration will be dispensed with. There will be no papal election because Francis remains in office as pontiff.
Benedikt’s body should be placed in a coffin made of cypress wood on Wednesday evening. Benedict will no longer be seen at the funeral service on St. Peter’s Square. Francis will preside over the fair, as Bruni explained. Because the 86-year-old is still suffering from knee pain, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re will celebrate the church celebration at the altar – he is 88 years old. But Francis will preach.
After the service, the coffin is carried into St. Peter’s Basilica. This is then placed in a zinc box, with the exclusion of the public, which is finally taken to its future resting place in the grotto of St. Peter’s Basilica.
While the Requiem is being celebrated in Rome, the bells are to ring for Benedict in Germany: The German Bishops’ Conference recommended that the 27 Catholic dioceses allow a funeral bell to be rung around 11 a.m. nationwide.
