Requiem for Benedict XVI to hold in his former German archdiocese

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Former German archdiocese of Munich and Freising has planned to bid farewell to the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, with a requiem on Tuesday evening.

As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he was Archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1977 to 1982.

The current incumbent, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, is expected to celebrate the mass for his predecessor in Munich’s Cathedral of Our Lady, or Liebfrauendom.

According to diocesan information, a memorial site had also been set up there where people can commemorate the late pope emeritus.

Such places also existed in Freising’s St Mary’s Cathedral and in the parish church of St Oswald in Traunstein, the church where Ratzinger celebrated his first Mass after his ordination in 1951.

Benedict XVI is lying in state in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome after his death on New Year’s Eve.

Funeral Masses are planned in several German dioceses.

His funeral service would take place in St Peter’s Square on Thursday morning, followed by the burial in the basilica. (NAN)