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CNS photo/Paul Haring

Vatican City

Thousands pay last respects to Pope Benedict in St. Peter’s Basilica

A quiet hush covered the vast expanse of St. Peter’s Square even though it was filled with thousands of people winding their way around the colonnade into St. Peter’s Basilica to pay last respects to the late Pope Benedict XVI.

• Pope, in Congo, calls for an ‘amnesty of the heart’ to build peace

  

  By CINDY WOODEN, Catholic News Service
  Published February 1, 2023

  In a country where most people are Christian and all are suffering from decades of violence and atrocities, Pope Francis told the Congolese to lay down their weapons and their rancor.

• Cardinal Pell dies at 81; he kept the faith even amid tribulation, pope says

  

  By CINDY WOODEN, Catholic News Service
  Published January 11, 2023

  Pope Francis praised the late Australian Cardinal George Pell as a faithful servant of God and of the Catholic Church, who steadfastly followed the Lord even “in the hour of trial” when he was jailed for sexual abuse. His conviction was overturned by Australia’s highest court.

• At funeral, pope remembers Benedict’s ‘wisdom, tenderness, devotion’

  

  By CAROL GLATZ, Catholic News Service
  Published January 5, 2023

  Pope Benedict XVI “spread and testified to” the Gospel his entire life, Pope Francis told tens of thousands of people gathered Jan. 5 for his predecessor’s funeral Mass.