Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst and three other cabinet members want to attend memorial services for Pope Benedict XVI. attend this weekend. According to the State Chancellery, the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and Minister of Health Karl-Josef Laumann (both CDU) will be present at the memorial service in Münster on Sunday. Europe Minister Nathanael Liminski and Building Minister Ina Scharrenbach (both CDU) would take part in the pontifical requiem for Pope Benedict XVI in Cologne Cathedral on Saturday, as a spokesman for the State Chancellery said on Friday in Düsseldorf. The "Rheinische Post" (Online Thursday) had previously reported this.

Benedict died at the age of 95 last Saturday in the Vatican monastery Mater Ecclesiae. He lived there in recent years after resigning in 2013. Wüst praised him as one of the most distinguished theologians of the 20th and 21st centuries. "With his basic thesis that faith and reason do not contradict each other, but are mutually dependent, Joseph Ratzinger has manifested an important foundation in theology," Wüst explained in a statement last weekend. As head of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI. always committed to ecumenism and the peaceful coexistence of religions.

According to the Archdiocese, the pontifical requiem is planned in Cologne Cathedral on Saturday from 12 noon. According to the information, a live broadcast by the cathedral radio is planned. In Münster, the deceased Pope Emeritus will be commemorated on Sunday at 10 a.m. in St. Paul's Cathedral. Bishop Felix Genn will celebrate the service and preach the sermon, as the Diocese of Münster had announced in advance. This Mass will be broadcast live on the Youtube channel of the Diocese of Münster.