QUINCY — Catholic parishioners in and around Quincy gathered Wednesday night for a special mass to remember Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died on New Year’s Eve.
Born Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict was elected Pope on April 19, 2005, just three days after his 78th birthday. He became the first Pope from Germany in nearly a millennia, and when he resigned in 2013, he was the first Pope to take that step in 598 years.
St. Francis Solanus was one of the churches marking the passing with the Mass of Repose for the soul of Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday. Father Steven Arisman said that Benedict’s acceptance to the position as the head of the church was a remarkable step for a man ready for a quiet life.
He had wanted to retire before he was elected Pope,” Arisman said. “It’s profound, to me, that a man who was ready to retire was humble enough to step up when he was called on by the Church. The fact that he said yes when he just wanted to relax at 78. Who could blame him for wanting that?”
William Mueller was one of the parishioners in attendance. Mueller, a resident of St. Louis, has been in town for the holidays with family.
“Pope Benedict always seemed like a down-to-Earth guy, and I liked that,” he said. “He was passionate about his positions, but he never seemed overbearing about anything.”
Arisman said he heard about Benedict’s life before he became Pope from friends that lived in Rome at the time.
“People I knew that lived in Rome were always impressed with him,” he said. “Before he was Pope, they would run into him riding the buses. He took the bus most everywhere he went.”
That grounded personality, along with his heritage, were a few of the things that Arisman said made him easier to connect with for local Catholics.
“I think people loved him because of his German heritage,” Arisman said. “He was a beer-drinking guy, and you can’t go wrong with that in Quincy. I love the photos of him as the Holy Father holding a giant stein of beer. We’re far more than our German heritage here, of course, but it’s something that makes him so relatable to us here.”
Arisman said Benedict’s successor, Pope Francis, called Benedict the grandpa of the Church following his retirement.
“It will be sad now to have our Grandpa gone,” Arisman said.
Masses in memory of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI were held Wednesday at St. Anthony and Blessed Sacrament churches along with St. Francis. St. Rose of Lima’s mass for Benedict was scheduled for 7 a.m. Thursday.
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