Cuba decreed official mourning for this Thursday for the death of emeritus pope Benedict XVI, who passed away on Saturday, December 31 at the age of 95.
The duel began at 6:00 p.m. and will last until 12:00 p.m. tonight. The national flag will be hoisted at half mast in public buildings and military institutions while the duel lasts, which is decreed by the president of the nation.
? Official Duel decreed in #Cuba?? on the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. pic.twitter.com/7iZJtVq2sw
— José Martí National Library of Cuba (@BiblioNacCuba) January 5, 2023
Joseph Ratzinger, the pope’s name from 2005 until his resignation in 2013, was the second Pontiff to visited Cuba after John Paul II.
His stay in 2012 coincided with the Jubilee Year for the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the image of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, considered the Patroness of Cuba.
In Santiago de Cuba he offered the first of his two masses that brought together more than 200,000 people, according to official estimates at the time.
That trip took place between the historic visit to Cuba by his predecessor, John Paul II, in 1998, and the two subsequent visits by Pope Francis.
On his last day in the country, Benedict XVI met with former Cuban President Raúl Castro, whom he asked to declare Good Friday a holiday, as established from now on.
The German pontiff also held a meeting with Fidel Castro, who died in 2016, who had withdrawn from power since 2006 due to a serious illness.
Benedict XVI died on Saturday, December 31, at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in the Vatican, where he had resided in retirement since 2013, when he became the first pope since the Middle Ages to renounce leadership of the Catholic Church.
Efe/OnCuba.
