Posted on 02/26/2015 3:00:17 PM PST by NYer
From Crux:
Pope Francis was not involved in an early January decision to bury a homeless man in a Vatican cemetery, a spokesman said Wednesday; however, he would likely be pleased because it corresponds with his desire to make the poor a priority.
Known by Vatican personnel for spending his days approaching pilgrims around St. Peter’s Basilica to tell them to go to confession and to pray daily, Willy Herteller, who was Flemish, died in Rome on Dec. 12 at the age of 80.
He was buried in the Vatican’s small German cemetery, which is more commonly a final resting place for aristocrats and bishops.
Addressing the rumors of Pope Francis being involved with the decision, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Ciro Benedettini said that the pontiff had nothing to do with it.
The first to notice Herteller’s absence from the area around the basilica in mid-December was Italian Monsignor Americo Ciani, who serves as a judge on the Roman Rota, a canon law court that mostly handles marriage cases.
After learning that Herteller had died and was lying unclaimed at a local morgue, Ciani decided to give him a proper burial in the German cemetery. (Located behind St. Peter’s Basilica inside Vatican walls, the cemetery is technically considered on Italian soil because of a territorial agreement between Italy and the Holy See.)
Benedettini said that Vatican employees regarded Herteller as a good man who attended Mass twice a day in the church of St. Anna, known as the papal chapel since it’s also inside Vatican grounds.
“He used to say that receiving Communion was his medicine,” Benedettini said.
Vatican Radio reports:
The pastor of Sant’Anna in the Vatican, Father Bruno Silvestrini, had dedicated the Nativity Scene at Christmas to Willy, adding a homeless man among the shepherds. He loved to pray, he had a good heart, attended the morning Mass at St. Anna every day and always sat in the same place.
“For over 25 years he attended the 7:00 Mass”, Fr. Silvestrini told Vatican Radio, explaining why he wanted a homeless among the shepherds in the Nativity Scene. “He was very, very open and had made many friends. He spoke a lot with young people, he spoke to them of the Lord, he spoke of the Pope, he would invite them to the celebration of the Eucharist. He was a rich person, of great faith – said the pastor of St. Anne who added – there were prelates who brought him food on certain days. Then, we no longer saw him, and subsequently we heard about his death. I’ve never seen so many people knocking on my door to ask when the funeral was, how they could help to keep his memory alive … He never asked for anything, rather he was the one who would strike up a conversation and through his questions of faith, suggest a spiritual path to those with whom he spoke”.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him…
Ping!
“He was buried in the Vatican’s small German cemetery, which is more commonly a final resting place for aristocrats and bishops.’
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Very cool that the Vatican allowed the burial of a homeless person in an area that previously had been reserved for small Germans.
good decision.
**Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him…**
Amen.
First class move!
The guy is going to have a castle in heaven. I’d be happy to get to clean it.
In a thousand years archeologists will dig him up
and pronounce him Pope Willy the First.
And for 25 years no one in the Vatican saw fit to help him get housing, etc. They gave him a "home" only after he died? Despicable.
Is THAT what happened?!
1. Known by Vatican personnel for spending his days approaching pilgrims around St. Peter’s Basilica to tell them to go to confession and to pray daily, Willy Herteller, who was Flemish, died in Rome on Dec. 12 at the age of 80.
2. After learning that Herteller had died and was lying unclaimed at a local morgue, Ciani decided to give him a proper burial in the German cemetery.
3.For over 25 years he attended the 7:00 Mass”, Fr. Silvestrini told Vatican Radio, explaining why he wanted a homeless among the shepherds in the Nativity Scene.
He was homeless at 80 years old and the Vatican was well aware of it. Why did the richest church on earth not do something to get an 80 year old man off the streets?
This may come as a surprise to you but there are homeless people who actually CHOOSE to be homeless. They refuse shelter and offers of assistance. I believe this is better known as “free will”. The Vatican honored him with a grave. God bless them!
It comes as absolutely NO surprise at all to me. I’ve worked extensively with the homeless! I’ve not met an elderly one that would not prefer the safety & security of having some place to stay rather than on the street(other than a homeless shelter).
ha
What a crappy sentence about "making the poor a priority". The empty body no longer needed anything as the soul was already departed for destinations dependent on whether or not he had been saved. The poor would be much better served while they were still alive.
I had similar thoughts. The Catholic Church is probably the wealthiest entity on the planet yet it is often very tight with its earthly treasure.
I was stationed in Southern Italy in the late '70s and our unit sponsored a Catholic Orphanage - did maintenance and repairs on the facility. It was staffed by a priest and 2 nuns and totally dependent on outside contributions - if there were not enough contributions, it would cease to exist. There were about 25 kids who would run out and holler "Americani, pazo Americani!" (Americans, crazy Americans) as we pulled in and we would engage in about 20 minutes of "yard soccer" with them before getting to work. The roof was laid strone and leaked so bad that we had to scrape every seam and apply a lot of tar and other sealants to make it sound. There was a whole wing (where kids were housed) that had gaping holes instead of windows and we eventually had them filled and sealed to keep the weather out. Bathrooms had missing links in the sewer lines and many had no water input for flushing. We managed to get a bank fully operational and clean/disinfect/seal off the rest until a future time. The chapel was damp and moldy and had to be totally scraped and sealed with multiple coats of lacquer before we could white wash paint it.
It left me feeling disgusted with the Church and also gave me much personal comfort in being part of the crew that helped those kids.
“First class move! The guy is going to have a castle in heaven.”
Maybe he would have preferred a warm cot ...
John the Baptist probably would have wanted something other than locusts to eat, too. What’s your point?
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