Inside the cypress coffin which will welcome the body of the pope emeritus Blessed XVI will be included, in addition to the coins minted during his papacy, the medals and palliums, also the famous deed. Here is the full text:
“In the light of Christ risen from the dead, on December 31st of the year of the Lord 2022, at 9:34 in the morning, as the year ended and we were ready to sing the Te Deum for the many boons bestowed by the Lord, the beloved Pastor emeritus of the Church, Benedict XVI, has passed from this world to the Father.The whole Church accompanied his passage together with the Holy Father Francis in prayer.
Benedict XVI was the 265th Pope. His memory remains in the heart of the Church and of all humanity. Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, elected Pope on April 19, 2005, was born in Marktl am Inn, in the territory of the diocese of Passau (Germany), on April 16, 1927.
His father was a gendarmerie commissioner and came from a farming family from Lower Bavaria, whose economic conditions were rather modest. Her mother was the daughter of craftsmen from Rimsting on Lake Chiem, and before marrying she had been a cook in various hotels. He spent his childhood and adolescence in Traunstein, a small town near the border with Austria, about thirty kilometers from Salzburg, where he received his Christian, human and cultural formation. The time of his youth was not easy.
His family’s faith and education prepared him for the hard experience of the problems associated with the Nazi regime, knowing the climate of strong hostility towards the Catholic Church in Germany. In this complex situation, he discovered the beauty and truth of faith in Christ. From 1946 to 1951 he studied at the University of Philosophy and Theology in Freising and at the University of Munich. On 29 June 1951 he was ordained a priest, starting his teaching activity in the same school in Freising the following year.
Subsequently he was a lecturer in Bonn, Muenster, Tübingen and Regensburg. In 1962 he became the official expert of the Second Vatican Council, as assistant to Cardinal Joseph Frings. On 25 March 1977 Pope Paul VI appointed him Archbishop of Munchen und Freising and he received episcopal ordination on 28 May of the same year. As episcopal motto he chose ‘Cooperatores Veritatis’.
Pope Montini created and proclaimed him Cardinal, with the title of Santa Maria Consolatrice al Tiburtino, in the consistory of 27 June 1977. On 25 November 1981 John Paul II appointed him Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; and on 15 February of the following year he renounced the pastoral care of the Archdiocese of Munchen und Freising. On 6 November 1998 he was appointed Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals and on 30 November 2002 he became Dean, taking possession of the Title of the Suburbicarian Church of Ostia.
On Friday 8 April 2005 he presided over the funeral Mass of John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square. By the Cardinals gathered in the Conclave he was elected Pope on 19 April 2005 and took the name of Benedict XVI. From the loggia of blessings he presented himself as a ‘humble worker in the Lord’s vineyard’. On Sunday 24 April 2005 he solemnly began his Petrine ministry.
Benedict XVI placed the theme of God and faith at the center of his pontificate, in the continuous search for the face of the Lord Jesus Christ and helping everyone to know him, in particular through the publication of the work Jesus of Nazareth, in three volumes. Equipped with vast and profound biblical and theological knowledge, he had the extraordinary ability to elaborate illuminating syntheses on the main doctrinal and spiritual themes, as well as on the crucial questions of the life of the Church and of contemporary culture.
He successfully promoted dialogue with Anglicans, Jews and representatives of other religions; as well as resumed contacts with the priests of the Community of Saint Pius X. On the morning of 11 February 2013, during a consistory convened for ordinary decisions about three canonizations, after the vote of the Cardinals, the Pope read the following declaration in Latin: ‘Well conscius sum hoc munus secundum suam essentiam spiritualam non solum agendo et loquendo exerceri debere, sed non minus patiendo et orando. Attamen in mundo nostri temporis rapids mutationibus subiecto et quaestionibus magni ponderis pro vita fidei perturbato ad navem Sancti Petri gubernandam et ad annuntiandum Evangelium etiam vigor quidam corporis et animae necessitaus est, qui ultimas mensibus in me modo tali minuitur, ut incapacitatem meam ad ministerium mihi commissum bene administrandum agnoscere debeam. Quapropter bene conscius ponderis huius actus plena libertate declaro me ministerio Episcopi Romae, Successoris Sancti Petri, mihi per manus Cardinalium die 19 aprilis MMV commisso renuntiare ita ut a die 28 februarii MMXIII, hora 20, sedes Romae, sedes Sancti Petri vacet et Conclave ad eligendum novum Summum Pontificem ab his quibus competit convocandum esse’.
In the last General Audience of his pontificate, on February 27, 2013, in thanking each and every one also for the respect and understanding with which his decision had been accepted, he assured: “I will continue to accompany the path of the Church with prayer and reflection , with that dedication to the Lord and his Bride that I have tried to live up to now every day and that I would like to always live”.