The bishops gathered in the Argentine Episcopal Conference (CEA) thanked the “service to the universal Church” of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI who died at the age of 95 and whose funeral will be presided over next Thursday by Pope Francis.
“The Argentine bishops, united with all the holy faithful people of God, pray for the eternal rest of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who has departed today to the Father’s house,” they said in a statement.
In the text they thanked him “for his service to the universal Church” which he has done “with a generous dedication and until the end of his life, with his robust faith, his unwavering hope and his exemplary charity,” the bishops estimated.
“When the fragility of his health did not allow him to continue carrying out his mission entirely, he had the greatness to resign in favor of the Church which he loved dearly”
The statement bears the signature of the president of the Argentine Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Oscar Ojeda; the 1st Vice President, Marcelo Colombo; the 2nd Vice President, Carlos Azpiroz Costa; and the general secretary, Alberto Bochatey.
The bishops added that Benedict XVI, “rooted in Christ, has offered the Church a magisterium that feeds her pilgrimage and evangelization.”
“When the fragility of his health did not allow him to continue carrying out his mission entirely, he had the greatness to resign in favor of the Church which he loved dearly,” they pointed out.
According to ecclesiastical references, “since then, he knew how to take care of her with his assiduous prayer and intercede for her before God; in the words of Pope Francis, ‘it has been a grace that sustained and sustains the Church,'” they paraphrased.
For which they implored “to shine for him, the Light that has no end, Christ, good Shepherd. That the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, his patron, and all the saints go out to meet him to enter the dwelling of God.”
“The Argentine bishops, united with all the holy faithful people of God, pray for the eternal rest of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who has departed today to the house of the Father”
The Vatican reported this Saturday that Pope Francis will preside on Thursday, January 5 at 9:30 in Rome (5:30 in Argentina) in Saint Peter’s Square at the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died at the age of 95.
“On Thursday, January 5 at 9:30 a.m. in St. Peter’s Square, the funeral will be presided over by Pope Francis,” the director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, announced this Saturday in a meeting with journalists.
The spokesman also reported that the pope emeritus had received extreme rites last Wednesday, given the serious state of health in which he was, and regarding the funerals he said that Joseph Ratzinger himself – the original name of the ex-pontiff – asked that they be ” solemn but under the sign of simplicity”.
Benedict XVI died this Saturday at 9:34 local time in the Matter Ecclesia monastery, where he lived within the Vatican gardens after his resignation from the pontificate in 2013.
