This Saturday It has not been an ordinary day in the Vatican. But in the vicinity of the small State, in the surrounding streets and even in the Plaza de San Pedro, that was the common feeling for much of the day. In a Rome more crowded than usual due to the holidays, tourists, in industrial numbers, came and went. The street vendors opened their stalls as usual. And even car traffic woke up as chaotic as it is since the coronavirus pandemic is no longer what it was.
Early in the morning, the snapshot contrasted with the mood inside the new Vatican Press Office on Via del Hospital. There, at about eleven o’clock in the morning, the vatican spokesmanthe Italian-British Matteo Bruni, appeared to announce the death of Benedict XVI to accredited journalists, with a broken voice and wet eyes. “Matte, are you feeling okay? Are you affected & rdquor ;, a chronicler finally asked him. “He is the first Pope…”, Bruni replied, without finishing the sentence and voice even more subdued.
It was only around one in the afternoon that the world outside and the world inside seemed to find some harmony, when a first sign of abnormality also appeared in the street. it happened when Italian police increased their presence in the area and cordoned off the esplanade in front of the Plaza de San Pedro, for which many onlookers and tourists were placed behind some fences to observe from a further distance what was happening inside the enclosure. Others, on the other hand, formed two queues to pass slow security checks and enter the restricted access area.
Has he died?
Inside and outside this enclosure, however, the climate did not change, it remained a certain apathy towards death of the German expatriate, who died in a convent a short distance away. “No. Who is dead? We didn’t know. When it happened?& rdquor ;, was the response of a couple from Milan, Arianna and Andrea, aged 28 and 27, when asked about the matter a few hours after the news first broke. “What do I remember about him? I remember that he resigned, little more”, Arianna recounted. “I don’t think it’s bad that people believe in something either. It is important for some & rdquor ;, reflected Andrea.
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“It is possible that my mother knows more about him (Benedict XVI) than me& rdquor ;, reasoned, for her part, Dilara, a 25-year-old German tourist and Muslim faith. “I have come here today for the story & rdquor ;, she clarified. “The truth is that we are not religious. We don’t know much about him & rdquor ;, agreed Carola, a 19-year-old girl from Genoa, while next to her a man shouted the identity of the deceased leader on the phone. “The Argentine has not died, the German has died!& rdquor ;, he explained.
An exception They were the Congolese businessman Brice Atembina and his friend, the Calabrian Enzo Di Stasi, an archivist by profession. “I met Joseph Ratzinger in the eighties when he was a cardinal and my father, ambassador to the Holy See & rdquor ;, explained the first. “The truth is that he was a man who did a lot for African countries, tried to give hope and worked to promote interreligious dialogue & rdquor ;, he considered. “I always had great esteem and admiration for this man who had an exceptional culture and was very humble”, added Di Stasi. “His figure of him grew when he made the decision to resign from the pontificate & rdquor ;, he concluded.