NEWLY elected Pope Francis has met his predecessor for lunch, the first time such a meeting has been possible for more than 600 years.
Pope Francis was flown by helicopter to Castel Gandolfo for the private lunch with Pope Emeritus Benedict.
Benedict has lived at the lakeside castle south of Rome since last
month, when he became the first pope in six centuries to resign, citing
ill health.
Cardinal Jorge Maria Bergoglio was elected to succeed him on 13 March.
There was no official communique on the results of the Pope’s brief
lunchtime visit to Castel Gandolfo, says the BBC’s David Willey in Rome.
There had been intense speculation about how Vatican protocol would
deal with the first face to face meeting since the election of Pope
Francis between the new Pope and the retired Pope. It was a carefully
calculated mixture of formality and informality.
Emeritus Pope Benedict embraced his luncheon guest on Pope Francis’
arrival at the helipad at the papal summer villa at Castel Gandolfo,
which has become Benedict’s temporary home. Benedict, who stepped down
from the papacy at the end of February, wore a white padded jacket and
looked rather frail in comparison to 76-year-old Pope Francis, nine
years his junior.
The two white-clad clerics then prayed together in the villa’s
private chapel where Pope Francis insisted on kneeling side by side with
his predecessor, rather than using the padded papal kneeler prepared
for him. “No! we are brothers, we pray together!” Francis told Benedict
in a gesture of humility.
On the agenda, some delicate handover details, including a top secret
document prepared by the former pope on last year’s scandal involving
leaked documents, our correspondent adds.
The new head of the Catholic Church is usually elected after the
death of his predecessor, and there is no public record of any previous
meeting between an incumbent pope and a former pope.
In 1294, former hermit Celestine V resigned after five months as
pope. Boniface VIII was elected days later, and had his predecessor
imprisoned. Celestine was dead within a year.
In contrast, Pope Francis has spoken warmly of his predecessor.
One of his first acts as Pope was to call Benedict at Castel
Gandolfo, where the former pontiff had been following proceedings on
television.
The pope emeritus is expected to stay on at the papal summer
residence until new accommodation being prepared for him inside the
walls of Vatican City is ready at the end of April.
For his part, Pope Francis will begin the church’s most important liturgical season on Sunday with a Palm Sunday Mass in St Peter’s Square.
He will then lead six more liturgies during the week, culminating with the Easter Sunday Mass and Urbi et Orbi blessing.
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