VATICAN CITY — The weird nature of Thursday’s funeral for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, presided over by his successor, Pope Francis, solely heightened curiosity over what course Francis would take to honor Benedict.
Would he give his predecessor the easy send-off he had requested, whereas managing to not offend the church’s conservative wing, which needed way more for his or her departed standard-bearer?
Francis opted for a homily that mirrored his personal imaginative and prescient of the Catholic Church, however not everybody was happy together with his strategy, with Michael Hesemann, a biographer and pal of Benedict, calling it “slightly bit commonplace.”
“You might have given the identical homily for anyone, any cardinal, any bishop and even the butcher subsequent door,” Mr. Hesemann mentioned afterward.
Francis paid respects to Benedict’s having lived the gospel “for his complete life” by repeatedly citing his predecessor’s phrases. Francis mirrored the theologian’s core perception of placing Jesus on the heart of life by meditating on how Jesus put himself in God’s fingers.
Above all, these near Francis mentioned, the homily centered on a bishop, and pope’s, core position as a pastor — one thing Francis himself holds expensive — above the previous church rituals, the so-called smells and bells, adored by traditionalists.
“God’s devoted individuals, gathered right here, now accompanies and entrusts to him the lifetime of the one who was their pastor,” Francis mentioned of Benedict’s ultimate passage.
“The Holy Father gave a phenomenal homily reflecting on the mission of a pastor, in closest imitation of Christ” mentioned Cardinal Michael Czerny of Canada, an in depth adviser to Francis. He added that the pope concluded “this most stunning religious portrait” of a faithful pastor by making use of it “wholeheartedly to his predecessor.”
“So please don’t be disenchanted for the dearth of a eulogy or panegyric,” Cardinal Czerny mentioned. “That’s for an additional time and place, not a Eucharist of Christian burial.”
However Benedict’s supporters mentioned his strategy appeared paltry compared to Benedict’s homily on the funeral of Pope John Paul II: an eloquent and full-throated ode to the life and legacy of a larger-than-life determine who ran the church for greater than 1 / 4 century.
“Benedict would have deserved the identical class of funeral as John Paul II — I’m slightly bit unhappy that there have been shortages within the ceremony itself, within the homily and so forth,” Mr. Hesemann mentioned as he walked into the Vatican after the service.
He mentioned that whereas Benedict “would have been the primary to have mentioned I solely desire a easy funeral,” he deserved extra.
However he allowed that the previous pope wouldn’t have been damage: “He was probably the most forgiving individual.”
