The Archdiocese of Manila will celebrate Mass for the late Pope Benedict XVI on Friday, January 6, at five o’clock in the afternoon.
The celebration will be held at the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, also known as the Manila Cathedral, with Cardinal Jose Advincula and papal nuncio to the Philippines Archbishop Charles John Brown.
In a circular, the archdiocese invited nuns, priests, and the laity to join the celebration in honor of the late pontiff.
With the invitation to attend the Mass is a prayer for Pope Benedict XVI:
“O God, faithful rewarder of souls, grant that your departed servant BENEDICT, who governed your church with love, may happily enjoy forever in your presence in heaven the mysteries of your grace and compassion, which he faithfully ministered on earth. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever.”
On Thursday, January 5, Pope Francis will become the first pope in modern history to preside as pope at the funeral of his predecessor.
The Requiem Mass is set to take place Thursday morning in St Peter’s Square, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Rome time.
Benedict XVI will then be laid to rest, as he requested, in the Grottoes beneath the Basilica, in the tomb where St John Paul II had been buried before his beatification.
In accordance with the wishes of the late Pope Emeritus, the funeral and the accompanying rites and ceremonies will be marked by the same simplicity that characterized the life of this “humble servant in the Lord’s vineyard.”
