Thousands of faithful flocked to Saint Peter's Square early this Thursday for the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, to pay their last respects to the German theologian who made history by retiring, and to participate in a rare requiem mass for a pope. dead presided over by a living one.
Thick fog engulfed the Vatican before dawn as civil protection teams and police set up metal detectors and barricades to herd supporters into the square.
Police estimated that some 100,000 people would attend, up from the initial estimate of 60,000, Italian media reported, citing police security plans.
[The life in pictures of Pope Benedict XVI]
Francis will preside over the funeral, an event that will draw heads of state and royalty, despite Benedict's plea for simplicity and the Vatican's efforts to keep the first funeral of a pope emeritus in modern times low-key.
Only Italy and Germany were invited to send official delegations, with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Italian President Sergio Mattarella confirming their participation.
People gather in Saint Peter's Square on the day of the funeral of Emeric Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, Thursday, January 5, 2023. GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE / REUTERS
But other heads of state and government decided to accept the Vatican's offer and go in a "private capacity."
Among them were at least four prime ministers and two delegations of royal representatives.
The funeral rite provides for the departure of the coffin of Benedict XVI from the basilica and its placement before the altar while the faithful pray the rosary.
The ritual itself is inspired by the code used for deceased popes, but with some modifications, since Benedict was not the reigning pope when he died.
After the mass, Benedict XVI's cypress coffin will be placed inside a zinc coffin, then an outer oak coffin, before being buried in the grotto crypt under the basilica that once housed the tomb. of Saint John Paul II before being moved to the upper floor of the main basilica.
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Some 200,000 people paid homage to Benedict during the three days of public wake in Saint Peter's Basilica, one of the last being Fray Rosario Vitale, who spent an hour praying next to his body and assured that Benedict had granted him a special dispensation to begin the process of becoming a priest, necessitated by a physical disability.
"So today I have come here to pray over his grave, over his body and to say 'thank you' for my future priesthood, for my ministry," he said.
"I owe him a lot and for me it has been a real gift to be able to pray for an hour over his coffin," he added.
Joseph Ratzinger, who died on December 31 at the age of 95, is considered one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century and dedicated his life to defending the doctrine of the Church.
But he will go down in history for a singular and revolutionary act that changed the future of the papacy: he retired, the first pope in six centuries to do so.
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Francis has praised the courage of Benedict XVI in stepping aside when he believed he no longer had the strength to lead the Church, saying it "opened the door" for other popes to do the same.
Francisco, for his part, has recently said that he has already left written instructions on the conditions under which he too would resign if he became incapacitated.
Although his funeral is novel, it does have some precedent: In 1802, Pope Pius VII presided over the funeral in St. Peter's of his predecessor, Pius VI, who had died in exile in France in 1799 as a prisoner of Napoleon.