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St. Peter's Square during the public funeral mass for Benedict
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa
On St. Peter's Square in Rome, the Catholic Church bid farewell to the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
taken.
The requiem was conducted by Benedict's successor, Francis.
According to estimates by the Vatican gendarmerie, around 50,000 believers took part.
This was announced by the press room of the Holy See on Thursday.
Benedict, whose real name is Joseph Ratzinger, died last Saturday at the Vatican at the age of 95.
The funeral mass for Benedict was new ceremonial territory for the Catholic Church, because with him a retired pope had died for the first time in centuries and therefore no successor had to be elected.
That a pope presides over the requiem of his predecessor is thus historical.
Benedict resigned from the papacy in 2013.
The liturgy was slightly altered compared to a traditional funeral service for a pope.
The requiem was held mostly in Latin, but the intercessions were spoken in several languages, including German.
Several thousand believers had gathered on the initially foggy square to pay their last respects to Benedict.
A large delegation from his Bavarian homeland also celebrated the fair far ahead on St. Peter's Square.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) and other top German politicians also came.
Previously, almost 200,000 people in three days in St. Peter's Basilica from the late Pope Benedict XVI.
said goodbye.
According to the Vatican gendarmerie, around 195,000 people came to the basilica in the Vatican from Monday to Wednesday evening and walked past the corpse of the retired pontiff that was laid out there.
Benedict led the Catholic Church, which has well over a billion believers, from 2005 to 2013. His voluntary resignation was historic, as popes usually die in office.
In the meantime, however, it is considered possible that Francis will also resign if his health deteriorates too much.
After his resignation, Benedict lived as Pope Emeritus in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican Gardens.
aeh/dpa
