“Jesus, I love you,” were apparently the last words of former Pope Benedict XVI before he died on Saturday morning. He said them in German. This was reported by the Argentine newspaper “La Nacion” on Saturday evening. According to the report, the ex-Pope’s private secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, immediately called Pope Francis, who was the first visitor to the deathbed, blessed the deceased and prayed for him. – The Rome correspondent of the newspaper “La Nacion”, Elisabetta Pique, has had a direct line to Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the incumbent Pope Francis, for decades.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. will be buried on January 5th after the public funeral service on St. Peter’s Square in the crypt below St. Peter’s Basilica. The Holy See confirmed this on Saturday. The German had wished to be buried at the spot where Pope John Paul II first found his resting place after his death, before he was brought to a chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica after his beatification.
The Vatican also announced further details of the ceremony next Thursday: The requiem, which begins at 9.30 a.m., will be led by Pope Francis. Believers can attend the celebration; no tickets are required for the open-air event.
The Vatican only invited two official delegations from other countries to the funeral mass, namely from Benedict’s home country Germany and from Italy. As pope, Benedict was automatically bishop of Rome. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has already announced himself.
The Pope’s body will remain in the former Mater Ecclesiae monastery in the Vatican Gardens, where Benedict has lived since his resignation in 2013, until Monday morning. Then the remains are taken to St. Peter’s Basilica.
From Monday at 9 a.m., believers can say goodbye to the Bavarian. St. Peter’s Basilica remains open to visitors on Monday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Tuesday and Wednesday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (KNA/dpa)
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