Saturday December 31, 2022 | 11:31 a.m.
The bishops gathered in the Argentine Episcopal Conference (CEA) thanked this Saturday the “service to the universal Church” of the emeritus Pope Benedict XVI who died at the age of 95 and whose funeral will be presided over next Thursday by Pope Francis.
“The Argentine bishops, united with all the holy faithful people of God, pray for the eternal rest of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who has departed today to the Father’s house,” they said in a statement.
Today, the Pope emeritus has passed away #benedictoxviMay he rest in the Peace of the Lord.#Communication #CEA pic.twitter.com/QvdU9ASJLj
– Argentine Episcopal Conference (@EpiscopadoArg) December 31, 2022
In the text, they thanked him “for his service to the universal Church” which he did “with a generous dedication and until the end of his life, with his robust faith, his unwavering hope and his exemplary charity,” the bishops estimated.
The statement bears the signature of the president of the Argentine Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Oscar Ojeda; the 1st Vice President, Marcelo Colombo; the 2nd Vice President, Carlos Azpiroz Costa; and the general secretary, Alberto Bochatey.
The bishops added that Benedict XVI, “rooted in Christ, has offered the Church a magisterium that feeds its pilgrim and evangelizing journey.” “When the fragility of his health did not allow him to continue carrying out his mission entirely, he had the greatness to resign in favor of the Church that he loved dearly,” they pointed out.
According to ecclesiastical references, “since then, he knew how to take care of her with his assiduous prayer and intercede for her before God; in the words of Pope Francis, ‘it has been a grace that sustained and sustains the Church,'” they paraphrased. For which they implored “to shine for him, the Light that has no end, Christ, good Shepherd. That the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, his patron, and all the saints go out to meet him to enter the dwelling of God.”
The Vatican reported this Saturday that Pope Francis will preside on Thursday, January 5 at 9:30 in Rome (5:30 in Argentina) in Saint Peter’s Square at the funeral of the emeritus pontiff Benedict XVI, who died at the age of 95, reported The Vatican.
“On Thursday, January 5 at 9:30 a.m. in St. Peter’s Square, the funeral will be presided over by Pope Francis,” the director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, announced this Saturday in a meeting with journalists.
The spokesman also reported that the pope emeritus had received last rites on Wednesday, given the serious state of health he was in, and regarding the funerals, he said that Joseph Ratzinger himself – the original name of the former pontiff – asked that they be “solemn but under the sign of simplicity”.
Benedict XVI died this Saturday at 9:34 a.m. local time in the Matter Ecclesia monastery, where he lived within the Vatican gardens after his resignation from the pontificate in 2013.
