STORY: The Vatican Grottoes have been open to believers and pilgrims visiting the tomb of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI since Sunday. want to visit. Pope Benedict was buried Thursday in the crypts beneath St. Peter’s Basilica, where Pope John Paul II was buried in 2005, before his body was transferred to a chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica in 2011. With Benedict’s death on December 31, a decade came to an end in which an incumbent and an emeritus pope lived in the Vatican at the same time. Benedict caused a surprise in 2013 by becoming the first pope in 600 years to resign instead of ruling for life.