VATICAN CITY – Retired pontiff Benedict XVI will help Pope Francis celebrate today’s sainthood ceremony for John Paul II and John XXIII, setting the stage for an unprecedented occurrence of two living popes canonizing two of their predecessors.
About 1 million pilgrims were expected at the event, and many were flooding into Rome on Saturday.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi told reporters Saturday that Benedict will be in St. Peter’s Square for the canonization of John and John Paul. He said Benedict and many cardinals will “concelebrate” the Mass with Francis.
Benedict resigned from the papacy a year ago and since has largely dedicated himself to prayer in a monastery on the Vatican grounds. Today’s appearance will be his highest-profile one since he retired.
Francis, who lives elsewhere in Vatican City in a guesthouse, has been quite welcoming to his predecessor, occasionally paying a call on Benedict. It was Francis who sought to include Benedict in today’s ceremony, expected to draw hundreds of thousands of tourists and pilgrims.
As German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict presided over John Paul II’s funeral in the square in 2005. He was soon elected pontiff himself, going on to lead the ceremony to beatify his Polish-born predecessor in 2011, also in the square.
Beatification is the last formal step before sainthood. It was John Paul who, early in his papacy, appointed the German prelate to a key Vatican post in charge of safeguarding church teaching and, eventually, also dealing with the mounting cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests in the United States and elsewhere.
Benedict has a connection to John XXII’s papacy, as well. As a young theologian, he attended the Second Vatican Council, the gathering of prelates from around the globe that the Italian pope set up as a way to bring modernizing reforms to the Catholic church.
On Saturday, pilgrims were pouring into Rome in big groups or as individual families or travelers, eager to be among those taking their place in the square before dawn on the day of the ceremony. The sound of hymns, in Polish, English and Italian, echoed suddenly in some of Rome’s streets Saturday, then just as abruptly faded, as faithful joyfully sang as they made their way through the Italian capital.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said an estimated 1 million people were expected to flood into Rome for the event.
The tax police also handed out fines to 23 establishments that were billing themselves as bed-and-breakfast lodgings for pilgrims, even though they lacked the proper authorization to rent out rooms.
Some pilgrims didn’t want any lodging. They rolled out mats and spread sleeping bags just on the edges of St. Peter’s Square in hopes of being among the first to enter the sprawling, cobblestoned space.
