New Year’s Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica
Pope Francis also speaks about late Benedict
Pope Francis (right) at a meeting with Benedict XVI. in the summer of 2022.
© imago images/ZUMA Wire
Pope Francis ushered in 2023 with a New Year’s Mass. He also spoke about Pope Benedict XVI who died on New Year’s Eve.
On Sunday, Pope Francis (86) started the new year with a New Year’s Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. During the Mass he also spoke about the former Pope Benedict XVI. (1927-2022), who had died the day before. “Lord, remember the late Pope Emeritus Benedict”, have Francis according to “Vatican News” declared in an intercession. Christ should “graciously receive Benedict in the kingdom of light and peace”. In the homily, Francis asked Our Lady to accompany the deceased, who was 95 years old, on his way.
“It is with great pain that I have to announce that Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus, died at 09:34 today in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican,” the Vatican press office said on December 31. In addition, it was explained that Benedict’s body should be publicly laid out in St. Peter’s Basilica from January 2 so that believers can say goodbye to him personally. Pope Francis will lead the funeral mass on January 5th.
Worldwide farewell to Benedict XVI.
Many well-known personalities mourned the death of Benedict XVI in the past few hours. or condoled. “It was with great sadness that I heard the news of the death of Pope Benedict XVI,” said former Chancellor Angela Merkel (68). The world is losing “one of the most controversial and important religious thinkers of our time”. King Charles III (74) explained in a letter of condolence to Francis, among othersthat he learned of Benedict’s death “with great sadness” and fondly remembers a meeting in 2009 in the Vatican.