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.

A quiet hush covered the vast expanse of St. Peter’s Square even though it was filled with thousands of people slowly winding their way around the colonnade into St. Peter’s Basilica to pay their last respects to the late Pope Benedict XVI.

It is “intolerable” that conflict and wars are still raging in Ukraine and other parts of the world, Pope Francis said on World Peace Day.

The best way to usher in a truly “new” year is to stop waiting for things to get better on their own, and instead recognize what is essential and reach out now to help others, Pope Francis said.

Like any bona fide cat lover, Pope Benedict XVI’s face would light up and his hand would reach out at the sight of a fluffy feline — even when that soft bundle of fur was a squirming, feisty lion cub brought to the Vatican by visiting circus performers.

In trying to help people understand how belief in God is a natural part of life and provides grounding for the values that protect human dignity and peaceful coexistence, the late Pope Benedict XVI saw Jews and Muslims as natural allies.