• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re sprinkles holy water on the casket of Pope Benedict XVI during its burial in the crypt of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican Jan. 5, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Pope Benedict XVI laid to rest today where two canonized popes were buried

January 5, 2023
By Paulina Guzik
OSV News
Filed Under: Feature, News, Pope Benedict XVI, Vatican, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

ROME (OSV News) — In what looks like a continuation of pontifical legacy, Pope Benedict XVI was buried in the crypt where his Polish predecessor, St. John Paul II, was first buried. St. John XXIII also was buried there prior to his beatification.

A triple coffin — the first one made of cypress, the second of zinc and the third one of oak — was put into the grotto Jan. 5 following the funeral Mass with Pope Francis presiding.

The place of burial is unique for many who knew the fond relationship of St. John Paul II and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope who was the Vatican’s chief doctrinal official under the Polish pontiff.

“It is a sign of friendship that goes way beyond their earthly life,” Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, told OSV News. The cardinal was master of papal ceremonies under both St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict.

The face of Pope Benedict XVI is covered after his body was placed into a cypress casket in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Jan. 4, 2023. Placing the cloth were Msgr. Diego Giovanni Ravelli, Pope Francis’ master of papal liturgical ceremonies, and Archbishop Georg Gänswein, private secretary to Pope Benedict. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

“I think it truly symbolically closes the earthly symbiosis of the two popes — the Polish and German pontiff,” added Yago de la Cierva, professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.

The Holy See Press Office predicted the crypt where Pope Benedict was laid to rest will be ready for the faithful to visit after Jan. 8.
The two popes had a unique intellectual friendship throughout St. John Paul’s papacy. They also were close collaborators. In 1981, the pontiff made Cardinal Ratzinger prefect of what was then called the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith and since renamed a dicastery.

In Italy to this day, the office is called Sant’Uffizio, the Holy Office, and has been one of the most fundamental curial offices for centuries. As the doctrinal guardian office of the Catholic Church, it also is handling cases of clerical sexual abuse.

“I think Joseph Ratzinger was John Paul’s safety net. The Polish pope wanted to transform the Church in every country, but he needed someone to remain in the office to make sure his ‘new initiatives’ were truly Catholic, he needed to have a theologian as a backup. And Karol Wojtyla trusted Ratzinger in every doctrinal issue,” de la Cierva told OSV News.

Cardinal Ratzinger was the one behind many of the Polish pontiff’s documents.

“I remember one press conference with Joseph Ratzinger in the Holy See Press Office,” de la Cierva said. “Someone asked him what he thought about a papal encyclical, and with a smile on his face he answered that he didn’t need to give an opinion because he recognized himself in many texts of John Paul II.”

As history showed, he was writing first drafts of many of them.

After St. John Paul’s death April 2, 2005, newly elected Pope Benedict XVI often prayed at the tomb of his predecessor. On May 9, only a month after the Polish pontiff’s death, the new pope began the beatification process for Pope John Paul II. He was declared “blessed” May 1, 2011. (Pope Francis canonized him and St. John XXIII in 2014.)

Even if their characters seemed a world away, Pope Benedict was similar to St. John Paul in many aspects.

“Pope Benedict XVI would spend a lot of time in the chapel. He was a man of prayer and at the same time a titan of work,” Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, the Latin Church metropolitan of Lviv, Ukraine, told OSV News.

Archbishop Mokrzycki was a secretary of St. John Paul II, and Pope Benedict asked him to continue his mission for the first two years of his papacy. Then the German pope made him archbishop of Lviv in western Ukraine, a city with deep Polish roots.

“When I arrived there, we were renovating the residence of the Lviv bishops, and I put a stained-glass window with both John Paul and Benedict there,” Archbishop Mokrzycki told OSV News. “I truly believe one day he will become a saint, I saw his everyday work, and I can tell this was a holy man.”

Paulina Guzik is international editor for OSV News.

Read More Pope Benedict XVI

Vatican to publish ‘private’ homilies of late Pope Benedict

Everyday collaborators of Pope Benedict XVI remember the late pontiff

‘I love you, Papa!’: Maryland Catholics recall encounters with Pope Benedict XVI

RADIO INTERVIEW: Remembering Pope Emeritus Benedict

In a turn of history, Poland is country that will miss German pope the most

Pope’s tribute to predecessor ‘refined and profound,’ says Benedict aide

Copyright © 2023 OSV News

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Paulina Guzik

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • 3 North Americans named to Vatican dicasteries for ecumenism, interreligious dialogue

  • Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

  • St. Mary’s purchases former Annapolis Area Christian School

  • St. Clement Mary Hofbauer adapts to times, cultures as it celebrates 100th anniversary

  • Augustinian prior opens up about papal vacation, first encyclical, appointments and tennis

| Latest Local News |

Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

DUAL ENROLLMENT

Double the learning: Dual enrollment provides college credit to high school students

St. Mary’s purchases former Annapolis Area Christian School

Radio Interview: Exploring the Nicene Creed – Part Two

St. Clement Mary Hofbauer adapts to times, cultures as it celebrates 100th anniversary

| Latest World News |

Judge blocks Trump birthright citizenship order as part of class action lawsuit

Ukraine religious leaders issue ‘desperate cry’ to world to end Russia’s war

care of creation

Pope Leo wears Chicago-made vestments to July 9 ‘care of creation’ Mass

sorry baby

Movie Review: Sorry, Baby

ICE

ICE deports Iowa parishioner to Guatemala homeland as supporters pray for his release

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Movie Review: Superman
  • Judge blocks Trump birthright citizenship order as part of class action lawsuit
  • Ukraine religious leaders issue ‘desperate cry’ to world to end Russia’s war
  • Pope Leo wears Chicago-made vestments to July 9 ‘care of creation’ Mass
  • Movie Review: Sorry, Baby
  • ICE deports Iowa parishioner to Guatemala homeland as supporters pray for his release
  • Come away and rest awhile
  • French woman hopes sharing mystical encounter with Minnesota Benedictine helps sainthood cause
  • Pope: Vatican still ready to host peace talks between Russia, Ukraine

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en