Erfurt (dpa/th) - In Erfurt's Mariendom, Catholic believers attended a funeral mass of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Tuesday. thought. According to a diocese spokesman, around 400 believers took part in the funeral service with Bishop Ulrich Neymeyr of Erfurt. The Pope Emeritus died on New Year's Eve at the age of 95. In Thuringia, he is remembered for his visit in September 2011. At that time he had celebrated a mass with 28,000 believers on Erfurt Cathedral Square. He is to be buried in Rome on Thursday.
Then at 11:00 a.m. the bells at Erfurt Cathedral, at the Etzelsbach pilgrimage chapel in Eichsfeld and all parish churches in the Erfurt diocese will ring, as the diocese announced on Tuesday. The German Bishops' Conference has called for a nationwide mourning ring. The Etzelsbach pilgrimage chapel was also a stop on the Pope's visit to Germany in September 2022. There, 90,000 believers came together for an open-air service.
