KEY POINTS
- Pope Benedict, 95, died on Saturday morning.
- Public viewing lasts for 10 hours on Monday in St Peter’s Basilica.
- Safety officers anticipated a minimum of 25,000 individuals to cross by the physique on the primary day of viewing.
Hundreds of Catholics paid their respects Monday to former pope Benedict XVI on the Vatican, in the beginning of three days of lying-in-state at St Peter’s Basilica earlier than his funeral.
The doorways of the basilica had been on Monday swung open so the general public may pay their respects to the late pontiff who shocked the world in 2013 by changing into the primary to retire from the papacy in 600 years.
They started queueing earlier than daybreak to view the German theologian’s physique, which was transferred early Monday from the monastery within the Vatican grounds the place he died Saturday aged 95.
“I arrived at 6:00 am, it appeared regular to come back and pay homage to him in spite of everything he did for the church,” stated an Italian nun, sister Anna-Maria, close to the entrance of the queue that snaked across the fringe of the huge St Peter’s Sq..
Benedict led the Catholic Church for eight years earlier than changing into the primary pope in six centuries to step down in 2013, citing his declining and bodily well being.
His successor Pope Francis will lead the funeral on Thursday in St Peter’s Sq. earlier than his stays are positioned within the tombs beneath the basilica.
Benedict’s physique was laid out Monday on a catafalque draped in gold material in entrance of the altar of the church, flanked by two Swiss Guards.
Nuns, monks and devoted collect in St Peter’s Basilica to pay their respects to former Pope Benedict XVI within the Vatican on 2 January 2023. Supply: AAP / EPA
“The ambiance may be very intimate,” Francesca Gabrielli, a pilgrim from Tuscany in central Italy, stated contained in the basilica. She stated Benedict was “an awesome pope, profound, distinctive”.
Benedict died on the Mater Ecclesiae monastery, which had been his house for the previous decade, his final phrases within the early hours of Saturday stated by the Vatican to have been “Lord, I like you!”
His physique will lie in state for 3 days, with members of the general public allowed in through the day, earlier than a funeral on Thursday that may break new floor.
The Vatican has but to launch particulars of the visitor listing past saying that it’ll embody delegations from Italy and Benedict’s native Germany.
The final papal funeral, of John Paul II in 2005, drew one million devoted and heads of state from all over the world, though Benedict was a extra divisive determine.
A superb theologian, he alienated many Catholics together with his staunch defence of conventional values and as pope struggled to impose his authority on the church because it battled a string of crises, together with over clerical intercourse abuse.