Farewell Benedict XVI
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has returned to the Father’s House.
The Vatican announced, the 95-year-old Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passed away on Saturday, 9:34 am in his residence at the Vatican's Mater Ecclesiae Monastery.
Already for several days, the health conditions of Pope Emeritus had worsened due to advancing age, as reported in its updates on the evolving situation.
He is most immediately remembered for his surprise resignation, the first papal abdication since 1415 and subsequent life as the world’s first "pope emeritus" in centuries.
The mortal remains of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI have been transferred to the Basilica of Saint Peter, where they will lay in state for three days to offer the faithful an opportunity for prayer and to pay their final respects to the former Supreme Pontiff.
The Pope Emeritus’ body – resting in front of the Altar of the Confession – is vested in traditional red liturgical garments with a miter, but without the pallium (the latter a symbol of jurisdiction which is normally not used for a retired prelate). A simple Rosary is held in his interlaced fingers.
On Thursday, Pope Francis will become the first pope in modern history to preside as Pope at the funeral of his predecessor. The Requiem Mass is set to take place Thursday morning in St. Peter’s Square, beginning at 9:30 am Rome time.
Benedict XVI will then be laid to rest, as he requested, in the Grottoes beneath the Basilica, in the tomb where St. John Paul II had been buried before his beatification.
In accordance with the wishes of the late Pope Emeritus, the funeral and the accompanying rites and ceremonies will be marked by the same simplicity that characterized the life of this “humble servant in the Lord’s vineyard.”
Source: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2022-12/pope-emeritus-benedict-xvi-dies-aged-95.html