Pope presides at memorial Mass for deceased cardinals, bishops

Published: 2003-11-13

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- At a memorial Mass for cardinals and bishops who died over the past year, Pope John Paul II said it is comforting to picture them resting in God's embrace. "In their pastoral work, through their preaching and their example, they educated the faithful to strive for true and eternal values," the pope said in his brief homily during the Nov. 13 Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. Pope John Paul presided over the first part of the Mass while Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals, was the principal celebrant of the liturgy. During the Mass, special prayers were offered for the two dozen Italian soldiers and Iraqi civilians killed in a Nov. 12 car bomb attack on an Italian military police post in Iraq.

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