A little over 24 hours after his death, the first images of the body of Benedict XVI -died this December 31 in Italy- in chapel on fire greeting the pope emeritus. One detail was visible in them detail of modesty.

These are the shoes chosen for the posthumous ceremony of the one who was the head of the Catholic Church. In the photographs of him you can see modest and inconspicuous black shoes on his feet.

This is a surprising fact given that Joseph Ratzinger embraced the tradition of wearing red shoes during his pontificate. Enough to be involved in a strong controversy about them, when an American media revealed that the garments were the exclusive of the Prada brand, a misleading fact.

But the information had such an impact on the image of a pope already carrying the sins of youth and a refractory, ultra-conservative profile that the Vatican echoed those claims and subsequently sent spokesmen to deny the fact that the pope will wear garments from the important Italian fashion brand.

And they did it with a curious sentence that went down in history: “The Pope does not wear Prada, he wears Christ”.

Benedict XVI had the curiosity of being the first pope to resign. He did it in 2013 – he was succeeded by the Argentine Francisco, eternal internal rival in the ecclesiastical political fabric -, in an event that broke seven centuries of tradition.

The death of Benedict XVI

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passed away this Saturday 31 December 2022 at the age of 95, full of ailments but with a clear mind, a historical figure of the Church, a great theologian, who for forty years was at the forefront of Vatican leaders . . As reported by the Vatican, the death occurred at 9:34 am Italian time, in the residence of the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery.

First, since 1981, as Cardinal Custos of Doctrinal Orthodoxy and Church Discipline. Joseph Ratzinger was the trusted man of St. John Paul II, practically the number two in the Church for importance and influence in the long 26 years of Karol Wojtyla’s pontificate.

The Polish Pope guided him in the succession by appointing him dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals, which allowed him in 2005 to lead the 115 cardinals who elected him in two days in the Sistine Chapel with the name of Benedict XVI. Once again it has been demonstrated that the saying he assures is not true: whoever enters the Conclave as Pope leaves it as Cardinal.

After eight years of conservative pontificate, Ratzinger resigned on February 28, 2013, a long-considered decision.

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