Monday, January 2, 2023 | 9:20 p.m.
More than 65,000 faithful bid farewell to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI yesterday in St. Peter’s Basilica, on the first of three days of the funeral chapel in which the body of Joseph Ratzinger will be exposed before the funeral that Pope Francis will lead on Thursday. .
The highest political authorities of Italy, the president, Sergio Mattarella, and the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, opened minutes before local 9 (5 from Argentina) the long procession of faithful who seeks to say their last goodbye to the emeritus pontiff who died on Saturday at the 95 years.
From early morning, the historic private secretary of Benedict XVI, Georg Ganswein, was in charge of receiving the special guests and authorities.
Dressed in the white papal robes and a red chasuble, the color of papal mourning, the body of Benedict XVI is exposed with a rosary in his hands, clasped at the level of the belly.
The body, with two Swiss guards at its sides, is exposed without the canopy, the white wool stole characteristic of the Pope, and without the so-called Fisherman’s Ring, two symbols of active pontiffs and not emeritus.
The first group of faithful to enter the Basilica were Indian theology students who arrived at St. Peter’s Square at 5:30.
At 2 p.m. in Rome, the Vatican Gendarmerie estimated that some 40,000 people had already said goodbye to the pope emeritus. At 7:00 p.m., the Basilica’s closing time, the Vatican reported that 65,000 people had fired him.
With a queue that at the opening time of the Basilica was already hundreds of meters long, the first day thus exceeded the initial forecasts of 35,000 faithful per day that they had made.
