ROME – On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, while Pope Francis rested in the chambers of his modest residence before an evening mass, the gendarmes closed down to visitors the winding walkways that criss-cross the Vatican Gardens in case Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, weak as he was, should leave his monastery to pray.
In the nearly a decade since Benedict stunned the Roman Catholic Church and the world by becoming the first pope to retire in nearly 600 years, an uneasy and compelling arrangement has reigned in the Church. Two popes, past and present, traditionalist and reformist, both clad in white robes and invested with moral authority, lived side by side on the same minuscule grounds.
That oddity, unprecedented in the modern era of the Church, persisted after Benedict’s death on Saturday morning, when the Church once again found itself in rare territory, with a living Pope supposedly presiding over his predecessor’s funeral.
Benedict XVI’s funeral will take place on the morning of January 5 and will “apparently be presided over by Pope Francis,” said Matteo Bruni, the Vatican spokesman, who shared the “sad news” of the death in a short statement Saturday morning. ensured that Benedict was without fail called “pope emeritus” – in both Italian and English – to avoid confusion. He refused to answer questions. “I don’t think this is the time for questions to leave us time for some sadness in our hearts.”
The timing was also inconvenient because no one knew exactly what would happen and what the first burial of an emeritus pope would look like.
“The question is complicated,” says Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, a historian of the papacy.
Those complications were immediately inevitable. Mr Bruni said the funeral would be ‘simple’ and ‘solemn but sober’, in line with Benedict’s wishes. But Benedict, who had retained his title of pope, if emeritus, was no mere cardinal, and it was not clear, among other things, whether he would be given the full procedural pomp for a pope who died in office.
Two official delegations will be present, those from Germany and Italy. But would other nations send representatives? Benedict’s Fisherman’s Ring – the seal used for papal documents – had already been destroyed, so that wouldn’t be necessary. But would his study and bedroom be locked?
When a pope dies, cardinals from all over the world gather to mourn, but also to vote in the conclave that chooses his successor. “Obviously that’s not a problem in this case,” Mr Paravicini Bagliani said, adding that the cardinals who came would only do so “as mourners”.
The Vatican said Benedict’s body will be shown to the faithful for a final “farewell” in St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday morning. Until then, his remains would remain in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, where he lived during his nearly 10-year post-popery.
Benedict had expressed the wish are buried in the caves of the Vatican, under the basilica, in the niche where St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II were buried before their remains were transferred to chapels in the basilica. The Vatican confirmed on Saturday that he will be buried in the caves, but has not yet announced exactly where.
According to The Seismograph, a website of deep resources in the Vatican, all decisions were made by Francis alone.
“At this time, my thoughts naturally go out to the dear Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI who left us this morning,” Francis said at a church service at St. Peter’s on Saturday. “We are moved to remember him as such a noble person, so kind. And we feel such gratitude in our hearts: gratitude to God for giving Him to the Church and to the world; thanking him for all the good that he has accomplished, and especially for his testimony of faith and prayer, especially in these last years of his remembered life.”
Francis’ predecessors in the medieval era were less friendly towards their acquiescent predecessors.
When Celestine V abdicated to live as a monk in 1294, his successor, Pope Boniface VIII, partly fearing a rival claim, threw him into prison and robbed him of a papal burial when he died in 1296. When Gregory XII abdicated from the throne in 1415, the last pope to abdicate before Benedict, he became a cardinal again and received the funeral rites reserved for a cardinal when he died two years later. In 1802, Pius VII presided over the funeral of his predecessor, Pius VI, whose body returned to the Vatican after he died in exile in 1799.
The uncertainty surrounding the rituals to honor Benedict in death stemmed from the decision that caused confusion in the last years of his life. After Benedict resigned, he vowed to be “hidden from the world,” an oath he usually kept. But to the dismay of many, he assumed the title of pope emeritus, retaining his white robes and a following of ideological conservatives who sought to turn him into an alternative center of power.
“Celestine V took off his robes in front of an audience to send a message,” said Marco Politi, a veteran Vatican analyst. He added that Benedict himself intended to become “Brother Benedict” and live as a monk, but his supporters convinced him to take the title of Emeritus, more common in the Eastern Churches. “Benedict was still wearing similar clothes, even in public photos, and this caused misunderstanding and confusion.”
He also sometimes undermined Francis. In a 2019 essay, he — or the assistants writing on his behalf — claimed that sexual abuse was a symptom of the 1960s sexual revolution, secularization, and an erosion of morality that he pinned on liberal theology. That undermined Francis’ view that it was the result of unhealthy abuses of power by clerics who held themselves above their flock.
And while Francis appeared to consider whether to lift the restriction on married priests in remote areas as had been proposed by his bishops, Benedict vigorously defended the Church’s teaching on priestly celibacy in a 2020 book. Francis ultimately rejected the proposal, a decision welcomed by conservatives.
That strange duality, which inspired the movie “The Two Popes” and captured the public imagination, has been the new abnormal at the Vatican for nearly a decade. Since Francis has been dealing with his own health issues, some wondered if the pope emeritus would outlive the acting pope. If Francis suddenly retired, would there be three popes in the Vatican?
For his part, Francis, who as Pope is also Bishop of Rome, has repeatedly left the possibility of retirement on the table. But he has suggested that he would avoid confusion by taking the title Emeritus Bishop of Rome “rather than Pope Emeritus” and spending his last days hearing confessions and visiting the sick.
The confusion of the multi-pope years still cast a shadow over some of the faithful who went to St. Peter’s Square on Saturday.
“I still haven’t really understood how this will work,” Chiara Darida, 73, a retired school teacher, said as she looked at the basilica. She wasn’t sure if all the city’s bells would ring and if heads of state and armies of pilgrims would storm into Rome.
“It’s a new situation, it’s never happened before,” she said, adding “there is some confusion.”
Sister Priscila Danieli Da Silva, a choral conducting student waiting to enter St. Peter’s Basilica, found it exciting.
“A pope celebrating the funeral of another pope!” she said, adding that the event was an example of how in a changing world the church was also changing. “It’s a total novelty.”
By presiding over the funeral, Francis not only honors Benedict, but takes an important speaking platform for himself. A papal funeral is usually celebrated by the Dean of the College of Cardinals. Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, filled that role in 2005 and used that role at the funeral of John Paul II to deliver a powerful and defining speech in defense of church traditions that led many cardinals to elect him pope.
Ultimately, Benedict’s legacy was his stunning resignation, in a seemingly casual remark he made while speaking Latin at a regular meeting with cardinals. It broke with his beloved church tradition, palpable in the lace of his clothes and the Latin of his liturgy, and set a modern precedent.
It also set the stage for nine surreal years of papal coexistence that some already miss.
“We had two and it was an added wealth,” said Maria Teresa Walis, 31, a lawyer who came to St. Peter’s Square to mourn Benedict. “It’s the end of an era.”
Reporting contributed by Elisabetta Povoledo and Emma Bubola in Rome, and Gaia Pianigiani in Siena.