The Roman Catholic Church has about 1.3 billion members worldwide, and the funeral for Pope John Paul II in 2005 drew an estimated 4 million people to Rome and Vatican City, which experts say may have been the largest-ever gathering of Christians.
The Vatican said Benedict’s funeral will take place with “simplicity,” as he requested. But the exact format remains uncertain.
“There is no script for this, and people in the Vatican are on the edge because they want to send a signal of respect to him and his followers, and at the same time not disrespect the reigning pontiff,” said Massimo Faggioli, a professor of historical theology at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. “Such funeral has no precedent in Italy.”
Typically, funerals for a pope are an elaborate affair, befitting his station as both God’s representative on Earth and the head of the nation-state Vatican City.
John Paul II’s 2005 death launched an elaborate series of ceremonies and viewings, including two celebrations of Mass, before he was buried. Benedict – at the time still known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – presided over the final Mass of Requiem, which experts say was likely the most watched funeral in history to date.