The catafalque stands in the center of a small private chapel of the monastery where Benedict lived since his abdication in 2013, in the gardens of the Vatican. In the background a cross, a Christmas tree and a nativity scene.
Pope Francis again praised his predecessor on Sunday. In the afternoon he paid tribute to “this faithful servant of the Gospel and the Church” from the window of the Apostolic Palace in St. Peter’s Square, where some 40,000 faithful gathered.
The funeral mass that Francis will celebrate for Benedict, who was head of the Catholic Church from 2005 to 2013, will be an unprecedented event in the history of the Church. From Monday morning to Wednesday evening, the public can pay a final salute to the body of Joseph Ratzinger, which will be transferred from the funeral chapel to St. Peter’s Basilica. The first German pope in modern history is buried in a crypt of the basilica after the funeral.
LOOK. Tens of thousands of faithful are expected for the pope’s funeral