Account of Benedict papacy to be sealed in coffin
A written account of the history-making papacy of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI will be placed alongside his body in his coffin for burial, the Vatican said Tuesday in revealing plans for the first funeral of a pontiff to resign in six centuries.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people filed through St. Peter’s Basilica to view his body as it lay in state for a second day.
When the viewing ends this evening, a one-page account of Benedict’s nearly eight-year papacy will be put into a metal cylinder and placed inside the coffin, along with other items, including Vatican coins minted during his reign, said Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.
Benedict, 95, died Saturday after 10 years in an extraordinary papal retirement lived out in a monastery in the Vatican Gardens. Pope Francis will celebrate the funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Thursday.
Although the Vatican has stressed that Benedict wanted “simplicity” to characterize his funeral, Bruni said the liturgy will “in great detail be that of pontifical ceremonies ... with some original elements.”
After the public viewing concludes at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, “the coffin will be closed, with a special rite,” Bruni said. Benedict’s body will be placed in a coffin hewn from cypress, then put into a zinc coffin that will be sealed in a second wooden casket.
It will be brought out of the basilica and into the square about 40 minutes before Thursday’s funeral, as the crowd gathered for the service recites the rosary for Benedict, who served as pontiff from April 2005 through February 2013.
By several hours into the second day of public viewing, nearly 100,00 people had filed past the bier in front of the basilica’s main altar since Monday. While the rank-and-file mourners caught a glimpse of Benedict’s body, two influential U.S. churchmen, Cardinals Timothy Dolan of New York and Sean Patrick O’Malley of Boston, attended Mass in the basilica at an altar just behind the central viewing area.
Among prominent clergymen coming for the funeral will be Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen, his secretary said. Zen, a retired 90-yearold bishop, has been sharply at odds with Francis over the Vatican’s agreement with Chinese authorities on the appointment of bishops.
Zen contends the deal betrays pro-Vatican Catholics in China and the clergy who have suffered persecution there.