Cardinal Vincent Nichols said that Benedict XVI’s funeral was “an unshakeable expression of faith and trust in the promise of Jesus” in a reflection on yesterday’s Requiem Mass for the late Pope Emeritus.
The Archbishop of Westminster said that it was at once “a very straightforward celebration of a funeral Mass as would take place at the death of any Catholic in any parish church” and also “a unique historical event” of “great emotional depth and stature”.
Cardinal Nichols was one of 125 cardinals who attended the funeral in St Peter’s Square, along with hundreds of bishops and thousands of priests in a congregation of 50,000.
The Irish Church was represented by the Archbishop of Armagh, Eamon Martin, and the Archbishop of Dublin, Dermot Farrell.
In addition, Mary Maguire of Letterkenny in Donegal read the second reading, from the first letter of St Peter (1:3-9) – the passage which includes the words “You did not see him, yet you love him.”
Ms Maguire told the BBC that she “just felt joy in my heart at being able to proclaim the Word of God in front of such a large congregation”.
She added: “I wasn’t nervous. I certainly got graces today, and I don’t know where they came from but I definitely got them because I would normally be nervous on a big occasion, even reading in our own cathedral, but today I wasn’t.
“Nerves didn’t touch me at all today. I just kept hoping and praying that I would do our parish and our county and our diocese and our country proud.”
Ms Maguire was asked to read at the funeral by Mgr Kevin Gillespie, vicar forane and administrator of the Diocese of Raphoe, who had previously served as master of ceremonies for Benedict XVI.
Archbishop Martin commented on the simplicity of the funeral.
“Despite the fact we had such a huge gathering in St Peter’s Square, the prayers, the readings, the format of the liturgy were exactly as you might have in St Eugene’s Cathedral or St Patrick’s Pennyburn in Derry.”
Speaking to ITV after the funeral, Cardinal Nichols was visibly moved by the occasion.
“It does have that deep sense of faith and trust that, no matter what we go through, here is this promise that there is a fullness of life awaiting us,” he said.
“I think that’s something everybody needs to hear, because there are so many difficulties and there are so many problems that everybody faces and the burden of weakness and sickness, but there is a promise and we should never lose sight of it.”
In England, the Bishop of Shrewsbury, Mark Davies, sent a pastoral letter to be read in parishes remembering Benedict’s “serene insistence in the face of the challenges we face to have courage” when he had first appointed Bishop Davies to the diocese.
“Looking to Christ, Benedict XVI never lacked courage nor feared unpopularity,” he said.
The recently-ordained Bishop of East Anglia, Peter Collins, celebrated vespers with ecumenical guests at the Cathedral of St John the Baptist in Norwich on the evening of the funeral. In his homily, he praised the theological work of the late Pope Emeritus.
“The beauty of human theological imagination and expression is not fantastical, not deceptive, but is real and true,” Bishop Collins said.
“By faith and reason Joseph Ratzinger strove to depict this beauty, this reality, this eternal truth.”
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