Tens of thousands of mourners, including world leaders and top church figures, gathered in St Peter’s Square, Vatican City, on Thursday morning to mourn the passing of Pope Benedict XVI.
The funeral follows a three-day lying in state for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI who died on December 31st. The former Pope had stood down from the top of the Catholic Church in 2013, the first in 600 years to do so, retiring to a monastery inside the Vatican.
VATICAN CITY, VATICAN – JANUARY 05: Clerics attend the funeral mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at St. Peter’s square on January 5, 2023 in Vatican City, Vatican. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
The funeral itself, which saw a plain cypress wood coffin carried into the square by pallbearers before being taken back inside for internment in the papal crypt, was conducted by a Vatican cardinal and was attended and presided over by Benedict XVI’s successor, Pope Francis, who arrived in a wheelchair.
Others attending the funeral included several European Catholic politicians including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Polish President Andrzej Duda, and Italy’s Prime minister Giorgia Meloni. European Royals attending included Queen Sofia of Spain and King Philippe of Belgium.
The Associated Press reports some 100,000 people were expected to attend, packing the Square and spilling out into the street leading down to the River Tiber.
The coffin of late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is brought to St. Peter’s Square for a funeral mass at the Vatican, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. Benedict died at 95 on Dec. 31 in the monastery on the Vatican grounds where he had spent nearly all of his decade in retirement, his days mainly devoted to prayer and reflection. (Photo by Massimo Valicchia/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Pope Francis arrives in a wheelchair to preside over the funeral mass of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at St. Peter’s square in the Vatican on January 5, 2023. – Pope Francis is presiding on January 5 over the funeral of his predecessor Benedict XVI at the Vatican, an unprecedented event in modern times expected to draw tens of thousands of people. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP) (Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images)
VATICAN CITY, VATICAN – JANUARY 05: A general view during the funeral mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at St. Peter’s square on January 5, 2023 in Vatican City, Vatican. Former Pope Benedict XVI, who served as head of the Catholic Church from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013, died on 31 December 2022 aged 95 at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in Vatican City. Over 135,000 people paid their tributes on the first two days of the late pontiff’s lying in state at St. Peter’s Basilica. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
VATICAN CITY, VATICAN – JANUARY 05: A general view during the funeral mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at St. Peter’s square on January 5, 2023 in Vatican City, Vatican. Former Pope Benedict XVI, who served as head of the Catholic Church from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013, died on 31 December 2022 aged 95 at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in Vatican City. Over 135,000 people paid their tributes on the first two days of the late pontiff’s lying in state at St. Peter’s Basilica. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
VATICAN CITY, VATICAN – JANUARY 05: Pope Francis presides over the funeral mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at St. Peter’s square on January 5, 2023 in Vatican City, Vatican. Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger was born in Marktl, Bavaria, Germany in 1927. He became Pope Benedict XVI, serving as head of the Catholic Church and the sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation, due to ill health, on 28 February 2013. He succeeded Pope John Paul II and was succeeded by the current Pope Francis. He died on 31 December 2022 aged 95 at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in Vatican City. (Photo by Antonio Masiello/Getty Images)
TOPSHOT – Cardinals and Bishops attend the funeral mass of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at St. Peter’s square in the Vatican on January 5, 2023. – Pope Francis is presiding on January 5 over the funeral of his predecessor Benedict XVI at the Vatican, an unprecedented event in modern times expected to draw tens of thousands of people. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP) (Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images)