When Herr Ratzinger departs this life, has anyone decided what exactly the procedures going to be? Will they hit him on the head with the silver hammer? I think his ring was destroyed when he quit. Will he get a state funeral? Be buried where? St Peters? A Wehrmacht cemetery?
If past history is any indicator, it could be anything from a full state funeral to his body being thrown into the Tiber, although I doubt his corpse will be dug up and put on trial and his two fingers cut off (must … resist … shockers … joke).
It is completely Pope Francis’ call and given the controversy over whether or not former-Pope Benedict could wear red shoes, I think he will be given a Cardinal’s funeral whatever that is.
I can totally see a Cadaver Synod in Benedicts’s case! 
I kind of imagine it’ll be a one-off thing, and will be a full Papal funeral, but without the succession-related elements. He is still Pope Emeritus Benedict XIV, after all.
So he’ll lie in state, have all the normal masses, processions, etc… and be buried in the Vatican grottoes, just like the past dozen or so popes. There just won’t be a conclave, or anything like that.
Plus, there probably won’t be a Cardinal Camerlengo as such either, since Francis is still serving.
reads title
Well, they’ll probably have to stop producing Sherlock…
reads body
Nevermind.
Given that there has been no recent precedent for this situation, the answer to this question requires speculation. Let’s move this to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
One point to bear in mind is that papal funerals have now evolved to the point where there is actually little about them that is specifically papal. That’s because the more esoteric forms of papal ritual were abolished from Paul VI onwards. What makes their funerals still seem impressive is more the setting and the crowds. The ceremony itself is a variation on the funeral service for a bishop.
Only two features are likely to give the officials pause for thought and then probably only briefly. One will be whether Benedict’s ring gets broken. It could be argued that this is unnecessary, as it was ritually defaced when he abdicated. The other will be whether Francis officiates. There’s obviously no recent precedent, but, then again, there’s no obvious reason why he shouldn’t.
That there won’t be a conclave won’t make any real difference. Although there is a fixed timetable for that usually commencing from the moment the Pope dies, that timetable is arranged so that they bury the late Pope first and only then proceed to make the formal preparations for the conclave. That’s partly because it used to make sense for the funeral to take place as soon as possible, whereas time had to be left before the conclave could begin to allow cardinals to travel to Rome. So the fact that there isn’t going to be a conclave won’t require any adjustments to be made to the funeral.
As for the camerlengo, the point about his role in a conclave is that, unlike other officials, he continues in office. So Francis’s camerlengo will just remain in office and will organise Benedict’s funeral, in exactly the same way that he would do if it was Francis who died. The difference will instead be that Benedict’s death will (presumably) not trigger the suspension of the rest of Francis’s household.
For the conservative elements of the church who are unhappy with Francis (and it’s far too early to tell how much he will actually reverse JPII and Benedict), it will be a perfect opportunity to elect an antipope.
Seriously, I suspect there will be a formal funeral with whatever elements are appropriate for a pope but omitting whatever relates to the papacy being empty. Since the situation is basically unprecedented, it will be an opportunity for Francis to make some executive decisions and sset the new tradition.
I’ll also give Benedict himself the acknowledgement for making the bold move of breaking tradition and recognizing that (a) old people last well past their prime thanks to modern medicine, and (b) the church probably cannot afford any longer a 10 to 15 year interlude of rudderless lethargy waiting for a pope to die before selecting a younger, energetic leader. He has single-handedly made probably the biggest transformational improvement in the church in centuries.
Hopefully the memorial ceremonies celebrate this bold beak with tradition.
I think you’re right, although it’ll remain to be seen whether Francis and the subsequent popes follow his lead. Hopefully they will, and the Church will seamlessly transition into a tradition of Popes retiring, and younger, more vital Popes taking their place.
It’ll be a while before this opinion is widely held; right now, Benedict is about as famous for looking like the Emperor in the Star Wars movies as he is for anything far-reaching and benevolent that he did as Pope.
The official style of the former Pope in English is His Holiness Benedict XVI, Supreme Pontiff Emeritus or Pope Emeritus. Less formally he is referred to as emeritus pope or Roman pontifex emeritus.
They will do what they normally do, and respect the position…
If they set a precedent of disrespecting a Pontiff Emeritus, they are setting the precedent of disrespecting the Pontiff. They let him back in for formal ceremonies, he is still Emeritus of whatever positions he held. Much like a Queen Mother comes around for formal occasions but otherwise doesn’t have duties…
More speculative.
The saving of the ring may on purpose… 1. For Pontiff Emeritus to wear it, although it was left behind its not clear that he can’t wear ring - the leaving it behind was to allow it to be defaced…
and 2. to allow it to be crushed at the funeral of the Pontiff Emeritus.
If can manage to accomplish it by 31-DEC, what will happen is that I will get points in The Game Room Celebrity Death Pool.
God and the Devil will have to do rock-paper-scissors to see who has to take him.
If he expresses a definite preference while alive, or in his will, it will almost certainly be honored. If not the modern default is St. Peter’s; the last pope buried elsewhere was Leo XIII (1903).
If some critics had their way, he’d be turned into a lampshade.
Well, OK… just so long as Seagrams has Full Rights to sell “Pope-Pop-Shotz” and “Vat-Hat” Coolers.
Bump
Guess we will find out
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/31/europe/pope-benedict-xvi-death-intl/index.html
There’s some details here (gift link):
The Vatican said that his funeral would be held on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in St. Peter’s Square, presided over by Pope Francis. Benedict will be buried alongside his 148 predecessors who lie in the Vatican Grottoes beneath St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican said.
Leading up to that ceremony, his remains will stay until early Monday at Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, which had been his home on the grounds of Vatican City.
Because there are no precedents in modern time, said Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, a historian of the papacy, the question about how to handle the funeral of a retired pope was “complicated.” Benedict was not the first pope to retire, he noted, but he chose to retain some trappings tied to the papacy, including dressing in white.
As Pope, or something else?
I guess that’s the “complicated” part.