Thousands Pour into St. Peter's for Funeral of Benedict XVI

A Vatican cardinal has sprinkled blessed water on the simple wooden coffin of Benedict XVI and released incense around it, near the end of the funeral in St. Peter’s Square.

Pope Francis, who presided over the funeral of his predecessor in the papacy, sat in a chair near a canopied altar before a crowd of tens of thousands of faithful, who applauded.

At the funeral’s end, the coffin was carried by 12 white-gloved pallbearers back into St. Peter’s Basilica for interment in a crypt below the main floor..

The faithful...