Pope Benedict XVI “spread and testified to” the Gospel his entire life, Pope Francis told tens of thousands of people gathered Jan. 5 for his predecessor’s funeral Mass.

“I can tell you the shock was palpable,” Bishop Parker remembered. “After Pope Benedict left the room, having given us his blessing, the cardinals simply stood in stunned silence. No one knew what to say or what to do, or what would happen next, given that this hadn’t happened for so many centuries.”

The theological writings and papal teaching of the late Pope Benedict XVI were and will continue to be a blessing to the Catholic Church, Pope Francis wrote.

Pope Benedict XVI made substantial contributions to theology and Catholic thought through his prolific writing, academic lectures and long-form interviews, say scholars who study his work.

In a Q&A with OSV News, author Peter Seewald takes a look at the legacy of the German pope he studied and who, he said, “will be canonized some day.”

Pope Benedict XVI was a “great teacher of catechesis” whose “sharp and gentle thinking” led others to encounter Jesus, Pope Francis said.

By their lives, Mary and the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI helped people to seek and to see the face of God, Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory said Dec. 31.

The Jan. 5 funeral Mass for Pope Benedict XVI will be a papal funeral with a few changes to fit with the fact that he was not the reigning pope and has not left behind a “sede vacante.”

The funeral Mass for Pope Benedict XVI, who died Dec. 31 at the age of 95, will be held Jan. 5 at St. Peter’s Square with Pope Francis as presider. The Mass is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. Rome time, which is 3:30 a.m. Eastern.

“Protocol develops over time, and this has never happened before,” the director of the Vatican press office kept repeating in the days after the death of retired Pope Benedict XVI.