Pope Francis touches the casket of Pope Benedict XVI at the conclusion of his funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Jan. 5, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
By Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis will celebrate a memorial Mass Nov. 3 for Pope Benedict XVI and cardinals and bishops who have died in the past year.
The Mass will take place at the main altar in St. Peter’s Basilica at 11 a.m., the Vatican announced.
Pope Benedict died Dec. 31 at the age of 95.
The previous day, the Nov. 2 feast of All Souls, the pope will celebrate Mass at the Rome War Cemetery, the burial place of members of the military forces of the Commonwealth who died during and immediately after World War II. The 426 men buried there died between November 1942 and February 1947. They came from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa.
While Pope Francis often goes to a cemetery to pray for the faithful departed with their family members on the feast of All Souls, he also marked the feast day at the French Military Cemetery in Rome in 2021 and at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy, in 2017.
Also on the pope’s liturgical calendar for November is his celebration of Mass for the World Day of the Poor. He will preside over the liturgy Nov. 19 in St. Peter’s Basilica.
