Death and Funeral
Degenhardt died suddenly in the early morning of 25 July 2002, in the archiepiscopal palace in Paderborn, at the age of 76. In the days that followed, thousands passed by the cardinal's body, lying in state in the Bartholomäuskapelle in Paderborn. The funeral took place on 3 August 2002 in the Cathedral of Paderborn in the presence of nine cardinals (Henryk Roman Gulbinowicz (Breslau), Karl Lehmann (Mainz), Franciszek Macharski (Cracow), Joachim Meisner (Cologne), Joseph Ratzinger (Rome), Leo Scheffczyk (Munich), Adrianus Johannes Simonis (Utrecht), Georg Sterzinsky (Berlin) and Friedrich Wetter (Munich)), over 60 archbishops and bishops from all over the world and numerous state guests.
The entrance of the numerous dignitaries into the cathedral alone took 20 minutes. The largest funeral ceremony which had ever taken place in the history of Paderborn was presided over by the ecclesiastical representative of Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger (today Pope Benedict XVI), shortly before he became Dean of the College of Cardinals (on 27 November 2002). A vast number of the faithful paid their last respects to Degenhardt through the live television broadcast of the pontifical requiem. In 2003, Hans-Josef Becker became Degenhardt's successor as archbishop of Paderborn.
Read more about this topic: Johannes Joachim Degenhardt
Famous quotes containing the words death and, death and/or funeral:
“I don’t know much about death and the sorriest lesson I’ve learned is that words, my most trusted guardians against chaos, offer small comfort in the face of anyone’s dying.”
—Alison Hawthorne Deming (b. 1946)
“I cannot think this creature died
By storm or fish or sea-fowl harmed
Walking the sea so heavily armed;
Or does it make for death to be
Oneself a living armoury?”
—Andrew Young (1885–1971)
“Rome, the city of visible history, where the past of a whole hemisphere seems moving in funeral procession with strange ancestral images and trophies gathered from afar.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)