VATICAN CITY — Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI ‘s body, his head resting on a pair of crimson pillows, lay in state in St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday as tens of hundreds queued to pay tribute to the pontiff who shocked the world by retiring a decade in the past.
On the eve of the primary of three days of viewing, Italian safety officers had mentioned not less than 25,000-30,000 folks would come on Monday. But by the top of the primary day’s viewing, some 65,000 individuals had handed by the bier, the Vatican mentioned.
As daylight broke, 10 white-gloved Papal Gentlemen — lay assistants to pontiffs and papal households — carried the physique on a cloth-covered wood stretcher after its arrival on the basilica to its resting place in entrance of the primary altar below Bernini’s towering bronze cover.
A Swiss Guard saluted as Benedict’s physique was introduced in by means of a facet door after it was transferred in a van from the chapel of the monastery grounds the place the more and more frail, 95-year-old former pontiff died on Saturday morning.
His longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, and a handful of consecrated laywomen who served in Benedict’s family, adopted the van by foot for just a few hundred yards in a silent procession towards the basilica.
Before the rank-and-file devoted had been allowed into the basilica, prayers had been recited and the basilica’s archpriest, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, sprinkled holy water over the physique, and a small cloud of incense was launched close to the bier. Benedict’s palms had been clasped, a rosary round his fingers.
Just after 9 a.m., the doorways of the basilica had been swung open so the general public, a few of whom had waited for hours within the pre-dawn damp, might pay their respects to the late pontiff, who retired from the papacy in 2013 — the primary pope to take action in 600 years.
Faithful and curious, the general public strode briskly up the middle aisle to cross by the bier with its material draping after ready in a line that by midmorning snaked round St. Peter’s Square.
Filippo Tuccio, 35, mentioned he got here from Venice on an in a single day practice to view Benedict’s physique.
“I wanted to pay homage to Benedict because he had a key role in my life and my education,” Tuccio mentioned.
Public viewing was set for 10 hours on Monday, and 12 hours every on Tuesday and Wednesday earlier than Thursday morning’s funeral, which will likely be led by Pope Francis, at St. Peter’s Square.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”