VATICAN CITY (CNS) – A quiet hush covered the vast expanse of St. Peter’s Square even though it was filled with thousands of people slowly winding their way around the colonnade into St. Peter’s Basilica to pay their last respects to the late Pope Benedict XVI.

Outdoor souvenir sellers were well-stocked with rosaries Jan. 2, but they seemed to have been caught off guard with a plethora of touristy tchotchkes and few to no images or mementos of the late pope.

The body of Pope Benedict XVI lies in St. Peter’s Basilica for public viewing at the Vatican Jan. 2, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

A damp chill hung in the air at 9 in the morning when the doors of the basilica opened to the public on the first of three days to view the pope’s body.

Special accommodations, however, were made for officials of the Roman Curia, Vatican staff and dignitaries who were allowed access from the back of the basilica and offered a place to sit or kneel on either side of the pope’s body, which was laid out in red vestments on a damask-covered platform.

Before the doors opened to the general public, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the archpriest of the basilica and papal vicar for Vatican City State, accompanied Italian President Sergio Mattarella and his entourage and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and other government ministers to pay homage to the late pope.

The first in line outside the basilica was a group of religious sisters from the Philippines, who said they got there at 5:30 a.m.

People kept slowly arriving before sunrise, including a group from Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin, led by Father Richard Kunst of Duluth. The priest told Catholic News Service that he was leading a tour of Rome the day Pope Benedict died.

Being able to see and pay homage to the late pope made the group part of “a really incredible piece of history,” he said.

Father Kunst said he was “a big fan” of Pope Benedict and “not sad at his passing” since the 95-year-old pope had lived a long life and “this is what he lived for — to be able to be with God.”

Father Felipe de Jesús Sánchez, who is from Mexico and is studying in Rome, told CNS that he saw Pope Benedict as “a simple man, humble, a model, who didn’t have as much fame as John Paul II, but he was the mind behind him.”

“For me, in my personal opinion, he was an authentic testimony of what it means to be Christian and a disciple of Jesus,” he said.

Father Matthew Schmitz was with a group of 90 young people from ECYD, an international Catholic youth organization affiliated with Regnum Christi.

“We were praying while we were waiting, we prayed the rosary” and went inside the basilica in silence, he told CNS.

He said he was in Rome for his studies when Pope Benedict was elected in 2005, and “I met him once after an Easter Mass,” which means “I’m still kind of processing” the fact that he found himself back in Rome when the pope died.

Ana Sofia de Luna, who is with ECYD and from Mexico, said, “It’s very sad that Pope Benedict died, but being here and seeing his body was a great blessing, to be able to ask for grace and seeing his body there was very impactful.”

Daniela Romero, a member of the group from Guatemala, said, “to be able to come here and see that we are representing and supporting the church is a blessing.”

Father Justin Kizewski happened to be traveling with a group of 45 seminarians and nine priests on pilgrimage from Madison, Wisconsin.

He said, “I’ve been privileged to accompany him through his pontificate: I was here in the square when he was elected, I was here in the square when he resigned, and now here when he’s lying in state.”

“When we read his writings, or heard him preach, or saw him celebrate the Mass, we really saw a man that cares for his sheep and gives us an example of how to care for ours,” he said.

Hannah O’Connor from Rhode Island credits Pope Benedict as being instrumental in her conversion during college, where “we read a lot of Ratzinger.”

His writings and pontificate were “an important part of my journey,” she said, and “I hope that people keep encountering his works and are brought to the one church through beauty, that’s what really drew me in.”

Sugey Viramontes from Mexico told CNS that, “without a doubt, his example of simplicity, and above all how he spent his last few years, always in prayer, is a great example for us young people.”

Inside the basilica, staff and security kept visitors moving smoothly and quickly, letting people stop before the pope’s remains long enough to make the sign of the cross and take a picture or two before being asked quietly to “Please, move along.”

However, many took advantage of the large nooks and niches in the basilica to press up against a wall or barricade and linger just a little while longer.

Pope Benedict’s mortal remains were to lie in repose in the basilica for three days until the late evening of Jan. 4; Pope Francis was scheduled to preside over the funeral Mass Jan. 5.

Rome authorities estimated there would be 30,000 to 35,000 people a day visiting the basilica and an estimated 60,000 people attending the funeral in St. Peter’s Square. But Vatican police said that 40,000 people had already entered the basilica to pray by 2 p.m. Jan. 2.

A man holds a copy of the Vatican’s L’Osservatore Romano newspaper announcing the death of Pope Benedict XVI, in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Dec. 31, 2022. Pope Benedict died at the age of 95 in his residence at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Highlighting Pope Benedict XVI’s great intellect, love and kindness, many of the world’s political and religious leaders voiced their appreciation for the late pope.

The German pope died Dec. 31 at age 95, after more than eight years as pope from 2005 to 2013 and nearly 10 years of retirement.

U.S. President Joe Biden said he and his wife “join Catholics around the world, and so many others, in mourning the passing of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.”

“I had the privilege of spending time with Pope Benedict at the Vatican in 2011 and will always remember his generosity and welcome as well as our meaningful conversation,” the president said.

Pope Benedict, he added, “will be remembered as a renowned theologian with a lifetime of devotion to the church, guided by his principles and faith. As he remarked during his 2008 visit to the White House, ‘the need for global solidarity is as urgent as ever, if all people are to live in a way worthy of their dignity.’ May his focus on the ministry of charity continue to be an inspiration to us all.”

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said Pope Benedict was “a man in love with the Lord. A Christian, a shepherd, a theologian: a great figure that history will not forget.”

“He was a great man of faith and reason,” who spoke and will continue to speak “to the hearts and minds of people with the spiritual, cultural and intellectual profoundness of his teachings,” she wrote.

Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella said the pope’s death is a time of mourning for all of Italy.

“His kindness and wisdom benefited our community and the entire international community,” and even in his retirement, the president said, he continued to serve the church “with humility and serenity.”

French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted, saying his “thoughts go out to Catholics in France and around the world.” The retired pope “worked with all his soul and intelligence for a more fraternal world.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, tweeted, “He was a great theologian whose UK visit in 2010 was an historic moment for both Catholics and non-Catholics throughout our country. My thoughts are with Catholic people in the UK and around the world today.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz tweeted that Pope Benedict was “a special church leader for many, not only this country.”

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier highlighted the pope’s dedication to ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, seeking dialogue “with Jews and Muslims as well as all Christian denominations worldwide.” He also understood “the great suffering of the victims (of sex abuse) and the immense damage to the credibility of the church,” he added.

Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, said, “No pope before him visited as many synagogues, and he made a point of meeting with local Jewish community representatives whenever he visited foreign nations.”

As pope and cardinal, he gave “the Catholic-Jewish relationship solid theological underpinning and enhanced understanding,” Lauder said, adding that he was “deeply moved” by the late pope’s “affection and friendship for the Jewish people, his commitment to remembrance of the Shoah and his unambiguous condemnation of Holocaust denial in any form.”

Abu Bakr Moretta, president of the Italian Islamic Religious Community, offered the condolences of Muslims in Italy in a message recalling the late pope’s visit to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2006, and his various meetings with Muslim heads of state and theologians.

“We recall his theological stature, which during the years of his pontificate provided the occasion for an intellectual debate between Christians and the Islamic world,” Moretta wrote in a statement Dec. 31.

He quoted Pope Benedict as telling the Catholic-Islamic Forum in 2009: “I am aware that Muslims and Christians have different approaches to questions concerning God, however, we can and must be worshippers of the one God who created us and who cares for every person in every corner of the earth.”

Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury said, “Pope Benedict was one of the greatest theologians of his age — committed to the faith of the church and stalwart in its defense,” showing clearly “that Christ was the root of his thought and the basis of his prayer.”

Pope Benedict XVI has left a legacy of ecumenical dialogue, the World Council of Churches said. Its acting general secretary Rev. Ioan Sauca said that “within a short time of Benedict becoming pope, long-standing grievances that had prevented meetings of the Catholic-Orthodox dialogue commission were swept aside.”

“The commission had drawn up the ‘Ravenna Declaration’ as a first step toward overcoming the thousand-year disagreement on the role of the papacy,” he said, and the late pope “demonstrated courage as much in his leadership, his writings and his pronouncements.”

WASHINGTON (CNS) – When Pope Benedict came to the United States for a visit to Washington and New York spanning six days in mid-April 2008, some news accounts called the pace of his schedule “grueling.”

Pope Benedict handled the pace with good grace while getting his message out to millions of Catholics both in the United States and throughout the world. He died at the Vatican Dec. 31.

Pope Benedict XVI arrives for a rally with young people outside St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., April 19, 2008. (CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec)

The trip had been timed to help celebrate the bicentennials of four archdioceses in the United States: New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Louisville, Kentucky. They were erected from the Baltimore Diocese, the nation’s first diocese, which was elevated to an archdiocese in the same year, 1808.

But it was the abuse crisis, which burst onto front pages in 2002 and persists to this day, that was a central focus of Pope Benedict’s trip; this was the first papal visit since the scandal started making headlines in the U.S.

At a Mass at the brand new Nationals Park in Washington, Pope Benedict said that “no words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse. It is important that those who have suffered be given loving pastoral attention.”

The pope lauded the efforts to deal “honestly and fairly with this tragic situation and to ensure that children – whom Our Lord loves so deeply and who are our greatest treasure – can grow up in a safe environment.”

“I encourage each of you to do what you can to foster healing and reconciliation and to assist those who have been hurt. Also, I ask you to love your priests, and to affirm them in the excellent work that they do,” he said.

Later that day, he met privately with a group of abuse survivors at the apostolic nunciature; the meeting was a first for a pope.

Pope Benedict’s Washington itinerary included an audience with the U.S. bishops and an appearance at The Catholic University of America, the nation’s papally chartered university, to speak to educators. He also presided over a vespers service at the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

The pope met with President George W. Bush inside the White House, emerging to cheering throngs outside as the pope and the president exchanged greetings.

In his meeting with the bishops, Pope Benedict acknowledged the “evil” of the clerical sexual abuse crisis and encouraged them to continue their work to restore trust in the church and its ministers.

Talking to educators at The Catholic University of America, he said today’s challenges require sound instruction in the faith, especially among the young. But they also call for “cultivating a mindset, an intellectual culture, which is genuinely Catholic” and can bring the Gospel to bear on the urgent issues American society faces.

Before heading to New York, Pope Benedict met with 200 representatives of Islam, Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism gathered at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, and on his way to an ecumenical prayer service in Manhattan, Pope Benedict stopped to greet Jewish leaders at the Park East Synagogue.

At the synagogue, Pope Benedict expressed his respect for the city’s Jewish community and encouraged the building of “bridges of friendship” between religions. The encounter marked the first time a pope had visited a Jewish place of worship in the United States, and it came a day before the start of Passover.

At the ecumenical prayer service, Pope Benedict said the witness of Christians in the world is weakened not only by their divisions, but also by some communities turning their backs on Christian tradition.

“Too often those who are not Christians, as they observe the splintering of Christian communities, are understandably confused about the Gospel message itself,” he said.

He also praised the ecumenical commitment of U.S. Christians and acknowledged that the agreements found in their theological dialogues have contributed to the theological agreements later forged by the Vatican and its official dialogue partners.

Celebrating Mass in New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral with thousands of priests and religious, the pope urged the Catholic Church in the United States to move past divisions and scandal toward a “new sense of unity and purpose.” It is time, he said, to “put aside all anger and contention” inside the church and embark on a fresh mission of evangelization in society.

Honoring the bicentennial of four U.S. archdioceses, Pope Benedict praised the “solid foundations” of the American Catholic Church and said that “the future of the church in America” must continue to build on that “impressive legacy.”

But in his homily for the final U.S. Mass, celebrated at Yankee Stadium, he also said the “impressive growth” of the U.S. church has been “not without its challenges,” comparing those challenges to the “linguistic and cultural tensions” found in the early church.

“In these 200 years, the face of the Catholic community in your country has changed greatly,” Pope Benedict said. “We think of the successive waves of immigrants whose traditions have so enriched the church in America.”

He also lauded “the strong faith which built up the network of churches, educational, health care and social institutions which have long been the hallmark of the church in this land,” as well as “those countless fathers and mothers who passed on the faith to their children, the steady ministry of the many priests who devoted their lives to the care of souls, and the incalculable contribution made by so many men and women religious.”

In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Pope Benedict said neither government nor religion has a right to change or limit human rights, because those rights flow from the dignity of each person created in God’s image. The pope insisted that human rights cannot be limited or rewritten on the basis of national interests or majority rule.

He also said the role of religions is not to dictate government policy, but to help their members strive to find the truth, including the truth about the dignity of all people, even if their religious views are different.

Two years after his U.S. visit, Pope Benedict sat down for an interview with German journalist Peter Seewald. The interview became the basis for a book, “Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times.”

Speaking of the visit, when the abuse crisis was center stage, Pope Benedict said: “I think even non-Catholics were surprised that the visit was not some kind of challenge.”

The pope said that at every appointment on his trip, including the liturgies in New York and Washington, there was “joyful participation, a sense of closeness, of communion, that touched me greatly.”

Asked whether the church in the United States had already surmounted the abuse crisis, Pope Benedict replied, “That might be an exaggeration.” But, he added, the crisis made the U.S. church in the United States “aware of its fragility and of the problems and sin that are present in it. This is very important. In addition, there is an internal awakening to the need to overcome all these things and to live out and embody Catholic identity in new ways in our time.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The day after Pope Francis told people retired Pope Benedict was “very sick” and in need of prayers, the Vatican said he had had a restful night and described him as being in serious, but stable condition.

Retired Pope Benedict XVI is pictured with Ratzinger prize winners Joseph H. H. Weiler, a professor of law at New York University School of Law, and Jesuit Father Michel Fédou, professor of dogmatic theology and patristics at the Centre Sèvres of Paris, at the Mater Ecclesia monastery at the Vatican Dec. 1, 2022. (CNS photo/courtesy Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation)

“I would like to ask all of you for a special prayer for emeritus Pope Benedict,” Pope Francis had said at the end of his weekly general audience Dec. 28.

The 95-year-old retired pope “is sustaining the church in silence,” Pope Francis said. “Remember him. He is very sick.”

“Ask the Lord to console him and sustain him in his witness of love for the church until the very end,” Pope Francis said.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, told reporters that Pope Francis went to Pope Benedict’s residence after the audience to visit him.

“I can confirm that in the last few hours there has been a worsening (of Pope Benedict’s health) due to advancing age,” Bruni said. “The situation at the moment remains under control, constantly followed by doctors.”

In a statement to reporters the next day, Bruni said the retired pope had rested well overnight and “is absolutely lucid and alert.”

“Although his condition remains serious,” Bruni said, as of midday Dec. 29 he was stable.

“Pope Francis renews his invitation to pray for him and accompany him in these difficult hours,” Bruni added.

Cardinals, bishops, bishops’ conferences and faithful around the world offered prayers for the ailing former pope and the Diocese of Rome announced that an evening Mass would be offered Dec. 30 in the Basilica of St. John Lateran “for our beloved Benedict XVI.”

In the 24 hours after Pope Francis asked for prayers for his predecessor, news crews started heading to St. Peter’s Square to give updates, although there was not much new to report. The square was filled with pilgrims, tourists and families taking advantage of the holidays to see the Nativity scene and visit St. Peter’s Basilica.

On Feb. 11, 2013, Pope Benedict announced that he would retire effective Feb. 28 that year. He spent the first several months of his retirement at the papal summer villa in Castel Gandolfo before moving into the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican Gardens where he has lived since.

The retired pope has looked increasingly frail, but as recently as Dec. 1 the foundation that promotes his theological work released photos of him meeting with the two winners of the Ratzinger Prize. He also met in August at the monastery with Pope Francis and the new cardinals the pope had just created.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Saying that retired Pope Benedict XVI was “very sick,” Pope Francis asked people to offer special prayers for him.

“I would like to ask all of you for a special prayer for emeritus Pope Benedict,” Pope Francis said at the end of his weekly general audience Dec. 28.

Retired Pope Benedict XVI is pictured with Ratzinger prize winners Joseph H. H. Weiler, a professor of law at New York University School of Law, and Jesuit Father Michel Fédou, professor of dogmatic theology and patristics at the Centre Sèvres of Paris, at the Mater Ecclesia monastery at the Vatican Dec. 1, 2022. (CNS photo/courtesy Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation)

The 95-year-old retired pope “is sustaining the church in silence,” Pope Francis said. “Remember him. He is very sick.”

“Ask the Lord to console him and sustain him in his witness of love for the church until the very end,” Pope Francis said.

The Vatican press office did not immediately respond to requests for more information about the retired pope.

On Feb. 11, 2013, Pope Benedict announced that he would retire effective Feb. 28 that year. He spent the first several months of his retirement at the papal summer villa in Castel Gandolfo before moving into the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican Gardens where he has lived since.

The retired pope has looked increasingly frail, but as recently as Dec. 1 the foundation that promotes his theological work released photos of him meeting with the two winners of the Ratzinger Prize. He also met in August at the monastery with Pope Francis and the new cardinals the pope had just created.