THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Part funeral, part jubilee, the Vatican had never witnessed an event like this before. People flocked from all over the globe to acknowledge the retiring Pope Benedict
For a man surrounded by so many thousands of well-wishers in St Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict looked small and very lonely in the shade of a utilitarian metal canopy on the steps before the vast baroque facade. The morning sun caught the lower part of his white cassock as mothers with little children waved flags.
“The Pope is not the only steersman in the barque of Peter,” he said. But the very setting suggested that he was the unmistakable captain. Bang in the centre of that stone outdoor theatre he sat, a few paces from the prelates who flanked him.
Benedict had read his obituaries in the past few days, hurriedly converted into analyses of his papacy. Now he was presiding at his own funeral, or something like it: the last public ceremonial of his papacy. But the atmosphere was more like a royal jubilee. When he paused in speaking, the continuous sound of applause in the column-hugged square was like heavy rain on a roof. No other pope has gone through anything like yesterday’s farewell. Celestine V ran away into the hills in 1296; Gregory XII in 1415 left his throne empty for a successor to be elected after his death.
In Britain we are used to monarchy. “The King is dead,” says the proclamation. “God save the King.” No sooner is one monarch lifeless than the next begins his reign. But between popes there is a sede vacante (Latin: ablative absolute, “the chair being empty”). It has always been connected in thought with the death of a pope. » | Christopher Howse, Rome | Wednesday, February 27, 2013
