L’Osservatore Romanoi-Vatican PoolPope Benedict XVI holds the Blessed Sacrament during a vigil on the eve of the World Youth Day Mass at the Marienfeld on Aug. 20, 2005, in Cologne, Germany. An estimated 900,000 pilgrims came for the final Mass of World Youth Day 2005.
COMMENTARY: The death and funeral observances also offered rather remarkable symmetries that echoed aspects of Benedict’s life.