The Japan Times - Pope Francis leads final farewell to Benedict before thousands

EUR -
AED 4.02547
AFN 78.958383
ALL 99.102869
AMD 431.181955
ANG 1.961978
AOA 1003.890567
ARS 1184.765046
AUD 1.813586
AWG 1.97271
AZN 1.867466
BAM 1.955265
BBD 2.22659
BDT 133.983319
BGN 1.957778
BHD 0.412787
BIF 3277.602688
BMD 1.09595
BND 1.474296
BOB 7.619914
BRL 6.405394
BSD 1.102698
BTN 94.079244
BWP 15.358795
BYN 3.608812
BYR 21480.619234
BZD 2.215094
CAD 1.559263
CDF 3148.664634
CHF 0.944431
CLF 0.02729
CLP 1047.223301
CNY 7.980215
CNH 7.994999
COP 4582.945323
CRC 557.847278
CUC 1.09595
CUP 29.042674
CVE 110.234821
CZK 25.256829
DJF 196.376238
DKK 7.461451
DOP 69.640934
DZD 146.03502
EGP 55.406831
ERN 16.439249
ETB 145.347308
FJD 2.537019
FKP 0.847795
GBP 0.850992
GEL 3.01429
GGP 0.847795
GHS 17.092321
GIP 0.847795
GMD 78.364643
GNF 9543.387299
GTQ 8.51067
GYD 230.706839
HKD 8.520518
HNL 28.214276
HRK 7.531044
HTG 144.290497
HUF 405.95125
IDR 18351.682095
ILS 4.102536
IMP 0.847795
INR 93.739724
IQD 1444.604509
IRR 46139.49374
ISK 144.852129
JEP 0.847795
JMD 173.912388
JOD 0.776923
JPY 161.033451
KES 142.530979
KGS 95.094267
KHR 4414.791359
KMF 493.729615
KPW 986.361205
KRW 1599.550347
KWD 0.337323
KYD 0.918948
KZT 559.11693
LAK 23885.460858
LBP 98806.249733
LKR 326.960488
LRD 220.54962
LSL 21.028443
LTL 3.236056
LVL 0.66293
LYD 5.33354
MAD 10.502325
MDL 19.485665
MGA 5113.600046
MKD 61.518158
MMK 2300.919896
MNT 3846.361639
MOP 8.828083
MRU 43.97796
MUR 48.956499
MVR 16.881727
MWK 1912.176502
MXN 22.397605
MYR 4.862772
MZN 70.042575
NAD 21.028443
NGN 1679.894432
NIO 40.578891
NOK 11.801632
NPR 150.52679
NZD 1.958628
OMR 0.421635
PAB 1.102798
PEN 4.052091
PGK 4.551754
PHP 62.891131
PKR 309.568949
PLN 4.273706
PYG 8840.579707
QAR 4.019799
RON 4.977847
RSD 117.117937
RUB 92.974546
RWF 1589.164933
SAR 4.112539
SBD 9.114284
SCR 15.716697
SDG 658.12198
SEK 10.951065
SGD 1.474715
SHP 0.861245
SLE 24.933268
SLL 22981.523891
SOS 630.227462
SRD 40.162734
STD 22683.951476
SVC 9.649358
SYP 14249.994157
SZL 21.036241
THB 37.713872
TJS 12.003414
TMT 3.835825
TND 3.376876
TOP 2.566829
TRY 41.607525
TTD 7.469955
TWD 36.360884
TZS 2949.992378
UAH 45.388374
UGX 4030.896458
USD 1.09595
UYU 46.647229
UZS 14248.099286
VES 76.89351
VND 28280.988741
VUV 134.896075
WST 3.078778
XAF 655.777467
XAG 0.037037
XAU 0.000361
XCD 2.96186
XDR 0.815577
XOF 655.777467
XPF 119.331742
YER 269.220506
ZAR 20.960317
ZMK 9864.868719
ZMW 30.57363
ZWL 352.89544
  • RBGPF

    69.0200

    69.02

    +100%

  • NGG

    -3.4600

    65.93

    -5.25%

  • SCS

    -0.0600

    10.68

    -0.56%

  • CMSC

    0.0300

    22.29

    +0.13%

  • GSK

    -2.4800

    36.53

    -6.79%

  • AZN

    -5.4600

    68.46

    -7.98%

  • BP

    -2.9600

    28.38

    -10.43%

  • CMSD

    0.1600

    22.83

    +0.7%

  • BTI

    -2.0600

    39.86

    -5.17%

  • RELX

    -3.2800

    48.16

    -6.81%

  • RIO

    -3.7600

    54.67

    -6.88%

  • RYCEF

    -1.5500

    8.25

    -18.79%

  • JRI

    -0.8600

    11.96

    -7.19%

  • VOD

    -0.8700

    8.5

    -10.24%

  • BCC

    0.8100

    95.44

    +0.85%

  • BCE

    0.0500

    22.71

    +0.22%

Pope Francis leads final farewell to Benedict before thousands
Pope Francis leads final farewell to Benedict before thousands / Photo: Tiziana FABI - AFP

Pope Francis leads final farewell to Benedict before thousands

Pope Francis led the funeral of his predecessor Benedict XVI on Thursday in front of tens of thousands of mourners in St Peter's Square, an event unprecedented in modern times.

Text size:

Scarlet-clad cardinals, dignitaries and thousands of priests and nuns from around the world gathered to say goodbye to the German theologian, who stunned the Catholic church in 2013 by becoming the first pontiff in six centuries to resign.

For the first time in modern history, the papal funeral was led by a sitting pope, Francis, who delivered the homily in Italian as part of a multi-lingual service with a Latin mass.

"Benedict... may your joy be complete as you hear his (God's) voice, now and forever!" the pontiff said in tribute to his predecessor, who died on Saturday aged 95.

At the end of the service, Francis made the sign of the cross over Benedict's simple cypress wood coffin and bowed his head, before pallbearers carried it into St Peter's Basilica.

Benedict will be interred in a tomb in the Vatican Grottoes beneath the basilica where John Paul II's body lay before being moved for his beatification in 2011.

The Polish pontiff was made a saint in 2014.

In a private ceremony after Thursday's funeral, Benedict's coffin was tied with a red ribbon and placed in a zinc coffin, before being sealed and put inside a wood casket, according to the Vatican.

Coins and medals minted during his papacy and a written text describing his pontificate, sealed in a metal cylinder, were placed alongside his body.

- Paying homage -

Born Joseph Ratzinger, the ex-pope had not been a head of state for a decade, but world leaders including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni were among those in attendance.

Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen, 90, also attended after being granted permission by a court to travel following his arrest last year under the city's national security law.

An estimated 50,000 people were in St Peter's Square for the funeral, according to police, many of them having queued up since dawn in thick fog to bid farewell.

"Benedict is a bit like my father, so I had to pay homage to him," said Cristina Grisanti, a 59-year-old from Milan, who hailed the former pope's "purity, his candour, his mildness".

An estimated 195,000 people had already paid their respects earlier in the week when the body lay in state at the basilica.

Many Germans -- some in lederhosen -- were in the crowd on Thursday as church bells rang out across Benedict's native Germany at the funeral's culmination.

"We owe him so much. We want to show that we stand behind him," said Benedikt Rothweiler, 34, who came from Aachen with his family.

"He always accepted everything the way God wants it. This is a good example for us humans."

- Two popes -

Benedict was a brilliant theologian but a divisive figure who alienated many Catholics with his staunch defence of conservative doctrine on issues such as abortion.

His eight years as head of the worldwide Catholic Church was also marked by crises, from in-fighting within the Vatican to the global scandal of clerical sex abuse and its cover-up.

When he quit, Benedict said he no longer had the "strength of mind and body" necessary for the task, retiring to a quiet life in a monastery in the Vatican gardens.

His death brought an end to an unprecedented situation of having two "men in white" -- he and Francis -- living in the tiny city state.

He and Francis, an Argentine Jesuit, were said to get on well, but Benedict's later interventions meant he stayed a standard-bearer for conservative Catholics who did not like his successor's more liberal stance.

The last time a pope presided over the funeral of his predecessor was in 1802, when Pius VII led the ceremony for Pius VI.

Pius VI died in 1799 in exile, a prisoner of France, and was buried in Valence. His successor had his remains exhumed and brought back for a papal funeral at St Peter's.

- European royals -

Beyond St Peter's, many of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics had been expected to follow the funeral proceedings on television and the radio.

In the majority Catholic Philippines, churches held requiem masses for the former pontiff, including at Malolos Cathedral near the capital Manila.

"This is an unexplainable feeling to witness this," said Cherry Castro, 67.

The only official delegations were from Germany and Italy.

But other dignitaries, including Belgian and Spanish royals, the presidents of Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Hungary, Slovenia and Togo, and the premiers of the Czech Republic, Gabon and Slovakia among others attended in a personal capacity.

T.Sato--JT