The body of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is being mourned with the same red chasuble he wore during the final Mass of World Youth Day Sydney 2008, according to the Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher.

Since Monday 2, Benedict XVI’s body has been in St. Peter’s Basilica so that the faithful can pay their last respects. According to the Vatican’s news website, around 100,000 people have already done so, a number well above expectations.

In the images that have been made known, it is possible to see Benedict XVI dressed in the chasuble he used in the celebration of the Final Mass at the 2008 World Youth Day in Sydney, a clerical red vestment, with golden ornaments, a manifestation of how WYD in Cologne, Sydney and Madrid marked his pontificate. “The World Youth Days are truly part of the most beautiful memories of my entire pontificate. Cologne, Sydney and Madrid are three milestones I will never forget. I was simply happy to be able to participate, to be accepted and to be able to help others,” said the Pope Emeritus in the book The Latest Conversations with Peter Seewald.

Benedict XVI’s choice of chasuble for his funeral was announced by Sydney’s Archbishop Anthony Fisher, who in 2008 was auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese and was responsible for organizing the WYD Sydney 2008, on his Facebook page. “The Vatican has confirmed that the Pope Benedict XVI will be buried with this same chasuble,” stated the prelate, an information that has yet to be officially confirmed.

Also to journalist Peter Seewald, in the book The Latest Conversations, the Pope emeritus had already revealed that “this is what fills me with joy: to see how faith takes new forms in recent movements, giving the Church a new face,” emphasizing that this is visible in the various World Youth Days, because “there are not just any people there, people who are behind the times, but young people who feel they need something other than the usual phraseology and who really get excited there.”

During the Final Mass of WYD Sydney 2008, Pope Benedict XVI shared his wish that “the fire of God’s love may descend upon your hearts and fill them, in order to unite you ever more closely to the Lord and his Church and to send you out, as a new generation of apostles, to lead the world to Christ”.

The funeral is scheduled for next January 5 in St Peter’s Square and will be presided over by Pope Francis.

During his pontificate, Benedict XVI participated in three World Youth Days: Cologne in 2005, which was his first international trip as Pope, Sydney in 2008 and Madrid in 2011.

Benedict XVI, or Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, was born on 16 April 1927 in Germany. He was elected Pope on 19 April 2005, succeeding John Paul II. He resigned the pontificate on 28 February 2013 for reasons of health and advanced age, being Pope Francis his successor.