There were over fifty thousand faithful of all nationalities gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the last farewell to the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, and among the authorities in the front row before the papal canopy there was the Lieutenant Grand Master, Fra’ John Dunlap, the Grand Chancellor, Riccardo Paternò di Montecupo, the Grand Hospitaller, Fra’ Alessandro de Franciscis, the Receiver of the Common Treasure, Fabrizio Colonna, Fra’ Roberto Viazzo, Member of the Sovereign Council and the Member of the Sovereign Council and Ambassador of the Order of Malta to the Holy See, Antonio Zanardi Landi.
Joseph Ratzinger, Bailiff Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Order of Malta, has always shown great interest in the Order’s works in the service of the most needy and, in February 2013, a few days before his resignation, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated in St. Peter’s the 900th anniversary of the Papal Bull of 1113, with which Pope Paschal II defined the foundations of the Order.