Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI gestures before his departure to Rome.
The Vatican said about 25,000 more people visited the body by afternoon on Tuesday, following the 65,000 who visited on Monday. “I am sure that an important part of the Church’s history has closed and now we have to move on without him,” she added. Francis will preside at Benedict’s funeral in St. Peter’s Square on Thursday before a crowd that Vatican police say will be in the tens of thousands.Because Benedict was no longer a reigning pontiff when he died, official delegations have been limited to those from Italy and his native Germany.
The decision not to have them during the public viewing appeared to have been decided to underscore that he no longer was pope when he died.
Who cares that his dead