THE VATICAN on Saturday said Pope Francis will celebrate funeral for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Thursday, January 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square.
The ICIR had reported that former Pope Benedict XVI died on the morning of December 31, 2022 at the age of 95.
“On Thursday, January 5, at 9:30 a.m. (0830 GMT) the funeral is expected to take place in Saint Peter’s Square, presided over by the Holy Father,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told journalists at a special briefing following the death of the first pontiff to resign in six centuries.
Pope Francis had last week disclosed during his weekly general audience that his predecessor was “very sick”, and asked for people to pray for him.
Most Catholic leaders comprising Cardinals, Archbishops and Leaders of various Dioceses had called for prayers following Pope’s Francis’ call for prayers for the now deceased Pope Emeritus.
For nearly 25 years as Cardinal, Joseph Ratzinger, who took the official name Benedict during his reign as the Pope, was the powerful head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, then known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).
Conservatives in the Church had looked to the former pope as their standard bearer and some ultra-traditionalists even refused to acknowledge Francis as a legitimate pontiff.
They had criticised Francis for his more welcoming approach to members of the LGBTQ+ community and to Catholics who divorced and remarried outside the Church, saying both were undermining traditional values.
Harrison Edeh is a journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, always determined to drive advocacy for good governance through holding public officials and businesses accountable.