Eric J. Lyman
VATICAN CITY – The Catholic Church on Thursday conducted a unique ceremony that blended centuries-old funeral rites with newly-created adaptations as it bid farewell to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died Saturday at the age of 95.
“We now offer our final goodbye to Pope Emeritus Benedict and we commend him to God, our Merciful and Loving Father,” declared Pope Francis, Benedict’s successor who oversaw the hour-long event.
“God’s faithful people, gathered here now, accompany and entrust to him the life of the one who was their pastor,” Francis said.
Afterwards, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re passed around the former pope’s coffin with incense, a traditional and symbolic funeral rite .
Previously:Former Pope Benedict XVI, first to resign papacy in roughly 600 years, dies following illness
‘The pope is gone’:Catholics gather at Vatican City to mourn Pope Benedict’s death
Unprecedented funeral for the ‘pope emeritus’
The funeral was also marked by novel changes, due mostly to the fact that when he resigned unexpectedly in 2013, Benedict was the first pope to do so in six centuries.
An institution built on precedent, the Vatican has no blueprint for the funeral of a pope emeritus. Even Pope Gregory XII, who in 1415 was the previous pope to step down, offered no help, since after leaving the papacy he reverted to being a Cardinal.
On Thursday, every public reference to Benedict was as “pope emeritus” (rather than “pope” as in previous papal funerals), and some prayers were broadened to reflect the fact that Benedict was not the sitting pope when he died. The most obvious change was that Francis became the first sitting pope to preside over the funeral of his predecessor.
Vatican faces an unprecedented challenge:How to hold a funeral for Pope Emeritus Benedict
How Benedict’s death may affect the church
According to key Vatican watchers, Benedict’s death removed his long shadow of influence both for the church’s progressive wing, led by Francis, as well as for the more canonic and conservative wing Benedict represented.
“Benedict’s death makes way for new conservative leaders to emerge within the church,” said author and Vatican analyst Marco Ansaldo.
Ansaldo mentioned Archbishop Carlo Viganò, the Vatican’s former nuncio (ambassador) to the U.S.; Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke of Wisconsin; Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; and Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, as church figures who make take on a more high-visibility role in Benedict’s absence. All have been critics of Francis’ papacy.
“Pope Francis will also be freer now,” Ansaldo said. “Freer in the short term to stake stances that may have seemed an afront to Benedict previously, and freer in the medium term to potentially resign himself if the physical demands of the job become too much. There was little chance he would have resigned while Benedict was still alive.”
Ansaldo and other analysts have said one of Benedict’s lasting legacies may be that he set the table for other popes to retire rather than to serve until their deaths.
‘A servant of God’
Among the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square Thursday, few addressed the internal machinations of the Vatican. Instead, people said they came to honor the man who led the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics between 2005 and 2013.
“He was a servant of God, which is all any of us can aspire to be,” said Mark Timothy Anderson, a Philadelphia native and school administrator in Rome on holiday with his family.
Another American, seminarian Reginald Fromme of Rhode Island, said he was honored to be on hand for what he called a “historic” occasion.
“When I am an old priest I will be proud to be able to say I attended the funeral of Pope Benedict, who was one of the great popes,” he said.
Around 60,000 people stood and sat during the well-choreographed event in St. Peter’s Square, amid cold weather and beneath cloudy skies. That number was far less than the estimated 500,000 who packed into the square for the funeral of Pope John Paul II, who was pontiff for 27 years until 2005.
Biden not among politicians, leaders in attendance
Among those on hand Thursday were newly-installed Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Czech Republic Prime Minister Petr Fiala, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium, and former Spanish Queen, Sofía.
U.S. President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was not in attendance. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre revealed this week that Benedict and the Vatican had specifically requested that Joe Donnelly, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, attend the funeral instead of Biden, whose views on abortion rights and gay marriage run contrary to those of the Vatican.