Pope Benedict's Funeral

     Pope Benedict is being buried today in Vatican. He passed on last Saturday, on New Year's Eve. He was probably the shortest term of a Pope, the first Pope to ever resign from his post then Pope Francis came into power. He was Pope from from 2005 until 2013.

Solemn funeral service for the ex-Pope

     The ceremony at St. Peter's Square seems solemn, especially among Catholics all over the world as he was their leader when he was still the Pope. 

     I remember my grandmother's story of how a Pope is chosen. When I was young, I have always thought popes are divinely chosen as was inculcated by my ultra-religious grandmother who was born in 1887, when the Philippines was still a colony of Spain and was responsible for her Catholic mindset.

     My grandmother told me that to chose a Pope, all Cardinals meet in Vatican, for now what I know as the conclave. They will be locked in a secluded room, according to her, holding a candle in their hands, for days in silence and prayers. Whoever holds the candle that gets lighted is the one chosen by God to be the new Pope. What a story concocted by my grandmother, I don't know if she actually believed in it or she related it to me with the hope of strengthening my faith. Only when I grew up I got to learn they vote during the conclave to elect a new Pope.