Crowds arrive overnight at the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

By: News Team

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Crowds arrive overnight at the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

Thousands of people began arriving overnight for the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, a hero to conservative Roman Catholics who shocked the world by stepping down nearly a decade ago.

Some began arriving in the Vatican area from 4 a.m. (0300 GMT), five and a half hours before the funeral presided over by his successor, Pope Francis, begins in St. Peter’s Square.

As thick fog enveloped the Italian capital, they began to pass through security checks before dawn to begin taking their seats.

More than 1,000 Italian security officers were called in to help safeguard the event and the airspace around the tiny Holy See has been closed throughout the day. Italy ordered flags to fly at half-mast across the country.

Among those attending the funeral were Germans dressed in traditional Bavarian costumes carrying flags and banners of the area of Germany where Benedict XVI was born.

Benedict, a world-renowned theologian, died at age 95 Saturday at a monastery inside the Vatican gardens, where he moved after becoming the first pontiff in 600 years to step down, opening the way for the election of Pope Francis, who has proven to be a more reformist and practical leader.

“Although at our age we were children when he was pope, he left his mark,” Xavier Mora, a 24-year-old Spaniard studying for priesthood in Rome, told Reuters as he approached the square with two other seminarians.

“We have been studying his theology for three years and although we did not know him personally we have great affection and esteem for him,” he said.

The wake ended Wednesday afternoon and the body was placed in a plain cypress wooden coffin, ready for the funeral. A page was placed on the coffin with the history of Benedict XVI’s papacy and other objects, such as Vatican coins minted during his reign.

The three-page account of his life and papacy, written in Latin, says he “fought steadfastly” against clergy sexual abuse in the Church.

While many personalities have praised Benedict XVI since his death, criticism has also emerged, including from victims of clergy sexual abuse, who have accused him of trying to protect the Church at all costs.

THREE CLOFFINS

After the funeral ceremony, the coffin will be transferred back to the interior of the basilica and covered with zinc before being sealed in a second wooden coffin.

Since Benedict XVI was no longer head of state when he died, only two countries, Italy and his native Germany, will send official delegations to the funeral.

Other leaders, including the King and Queen of Belgium, Queen Sofia of Spain and some 13 heads of state or government, will attend in a private capacity. Most countries will be represented by their ambassadors to the Holy See.

It’s a far cry from the last papal funeral in 2005, when dozens of kings, presidents and prime ministers joined more than a million people who flooded the streets around the Vatican to pay their respects to Benedict’s charismatic predecessor, John Paul II.

Benedict was always in the shadow of John Paul II, who was credited with the end of the Cold War. During his tenure, however, he devoted himself to some extent trying to overcome problems that the Church had ignored or covered up in previous decades, including rampant sexual abuse by clerics.

Benedict himself acknowledged that he was a weak administrator and, after eight years in office, surprised the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics in 2013 with his resignation, claiming that he no longer had the strength to lead the Church due to his “advanced age.”

Although in the following years he largely avoided public appearances, he remained a standard-bearer for conservative Catholics, who felt alienated by reforms introduced by Francis, including the crackdown on the old Latin Mass.

In the past three days, nearly 200,000 people have paraded before the body of Benedict XVI, dressed in a miter and red ornaments, with his hands wrapped in a rosary, which was placed in a coffin in St. Peter’s Basilica without any papal ornament.

At his request, Benedict will be buried in the Vatican’s underground grottoes, in the niche where John XXIII and then John Paul II were buried, before his remains were moved to more prominent places in the upper basilica.

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