Pope Benedict’s Funeral Makes Me Smile

The details of Pope Benedict’s funeral and burial can be interesting. He planned it himself and ex-Pope Benedict was interesting.  In canon law there is no blueprint for how to handle an ex-Pope, dead or alive.  (For instance, it was ex-Pope Benedict who chose to wear the white papal cassock throughout his retirement instead of the more modest black of clergy).  In civil law, there aren’t many funeral restrictions either.  The funeral director, church or cemetery may impose rules, but they are not uniform either, let alone law. 

The ex-Pope Benedict detail that jumped out at me was his wish to be buried in a used grave.  Granted it was Saint Pope John Paul II’s old grave but that was where Saint Pope John Paul II was first entombed.  John Paul was moved upstairs to the penthouse level of Saint Peter’s Basilica when he was canonized.  Maybe ex-Pope Benedict thought it was lucky and the canonization might rub off on him. 

The second detail to catch my attention was that ex-Pope Benedict had a list of things he wanted buried with him.  To what end I might ask? He is entombed inside a coffin (ash wood), inside a coffin (zinc metal), inside a coffin (oak wood)!   The first thing he wanted placed inside his coffin was a single page list of his achievements as Pope, encased in a small, silver cylinder.  The second thing to go in, was a collection of Vatican coins and medals, minted while Benedict was Pope, so they were engraved with his own likeness.  That’s a real head scratcher for me too.  Where is he going to spend them?  Other things were buried with him, but they were not made public. 

In my civil law practice, I fancy myself the Queen of Wills (for working folks) and of PA Inheritance Tax deductions.  I sincerely believe I have seen it all.  And my conclusion is that ex-Pope Benedict wasn’t all that different from my clients in my middle-class neighborhood of Port Richmond in Philadelphia, PA.    

There was the lovely eighty something woman who came to my office to write her Will, dressed in a pink tutu, stockings, and ballet slippers.  Let’s not forget her pink tiara. When I asked her if she had any special things she wanted mentioned about her funeral, she became testy and said “Why do you think I wore this??  So that you know what I want to be buried in!”  Silly me.  

There was the priest who came to write his Will and was determined to have a bier exactly like French Leader, Charles De Gaulle.  Did I know De Gaulle was buried without any underwear?  That one goes on, but I’ll leave it there.  (So glad God blessed me with a straight poker face).

There was a high school friend of mine (Little Flower Catholic High School for Girls) who died very young after a long and brutal fight with cancer.  She loved M&Ms.  Her family put a giant bowl of them at the foot of her casket at her viewing.  It made us all smile as we came up to pay our respects and took a handful in honor of her.  I, however, took a handful and, when no one was looking, put the M&Ms in the coffin under the blanket, for her trip to Heaven.  

She wanted to be cremated to escape the body that had been so awful to her in life.  Her brother came a couple of weeks later to see me and work on her estate.  Nonchalantly he mentioned how while the cremation was taking place, the family could smell chocolate.  My poker face failed me that day and I am sure I looked absolutely panicked.  When he saw my face, her brother burst out laughing and told me he saw me stash the candy in the coffin and just thought we both needed a laugh right then.

I don’t know these kinds of details about Pope Benedict’s funeral but I like the little bit the press and the internet have divulged.  It makes me smile to know Pope Benedict had some of the same kind of concerns that so many of us normal folks do.