Here’s what the pontiff would have said
As many people prepare to greet the pope emeritus in the funeral home set up in the Vatican, details emerge about his last hours of life. Particularly, Benedict XVI in his last words before flying to heaven he would have expressed once again his religiosity and spirituality, which accompanied him throughout his life as a prelate, up to the decision to step aside for health reasons.
During the night, a nurse allegedly collected the last testimony of the pope emeritus, as the editorial director of the Vatican media reported on Vatican News, Andrew Tornielli.
The episode would have happened around 3 in the morning on 31 December, shortly before the death of pope Ratzinger. He was still lucid and at that moment there was only a nurse with him who didn’t speak German: his collaborators were taking turns.
The bishop Georg Gansweinhis personal secretary, reported what the dying pope emeritus said to the nurse who was assisting him at the time.
Benedict XVI in a low voice, but in an easily distinguishable way, said, in Italian: “Lord, I love you!”. I wasn’t there at the time, but the nurse told me shortly after. His last words were understandable, because after that he was no longer able to express himself.
These were the last comprehensible words of the pontiff, who was later unable to speak, shortly thereafter breathing his last breath on this earth. In fact, the pontiff then passed away at 9.34 on 31 December 2022, at the monastery Mater Ecclesiae in the Vatican where he retired after his resignation in 2013.
Benedict XVI, his last words
The pope emeritus lived there with his private secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein. And together with four Memores Domini, consecrated lay women of Communion and Liberation who took care of him.
Pope Francis, according to Vatican media reports, would have been the first to visit his body.
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