Only two official state delegations — from Italy and Germany — will attend the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the Vatican’s press workplace has confirmed.

The PUNCH had reported that Pope Benedict XVI stood down ailing well being for nearly a decade earlier than his eventual dying on Saturday, December 31, 2022.

He led the Catholic Church for fewer than eight years till, in 2013, he turned the primary Pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415.

Benedict spent his last years on the Mater Ecclesiae monastery throughout the partitions of the Vatican the place he handed away.

The German-born Benedict, previously Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, lived in Italy for greater than 40 years, starting in 1981.

The Holy See Press Office confirmed on December 31 that the two international locations had been sending official representatives to the funeral, which will likely be on Thursday.

Both Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Italian Prime Minister Geogia Meloni paid their respects to the late pontiff Monday morning at St. Peter’s Basilica, the place his physique will lie in state by way of January 4.

While there, Meloni supplied her condolences to Benedict’s longtime private secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein.

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