Special programs were broadcast on Italian television with Vaticanists who know everything about Benedetto. But St. Peter’s Square remained half-empty after the news of his death. The Romans never warmed to the German Pope.
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Oliver Meiler, Rome
The news of the death came with a sparse communiqué from the Holy See’s spokesman, in six languages, and that was perhaps the first tangible sign that things were going to be a little different at the Vatican this time. Inevitably. In this communiqué, Matteo Bruni writes that it is with “great pain” that he announces the passing of Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI. died on New Year’s Eve 2022 at 9:34 a.m. in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican. The body will be laid out in St. Peter’s Basilica on January 2nd so that the faithful can say goodbye to Benedict.