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Tag: Funerals and memorial services

  • Native American leader and advocate for tribal sovereignty Joe A. Garcia dies at 70

    Native American leader and advocate for tribal sovereignty Joe A. Garcia dies at 70

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    SANTA FE, New Mexico — Joe A. Garcia, a well-known Native American leader from New Mexico and advocate for tribal sovereignty, has died at 70, his family confirmed Saturday.

    A traditional funeral was already held following Garcia’s death Thursday, said family members. The cause of death was not made public.

    Garcia was a former two-time president of the the National Congress of American Indians, which describes itself as the oldest and largest organization of American Indian and Alaska Native governments. He previously served three terms as governor of the Ohkay Owingeh, a federally designated tribe of pueblo people in New Mexico. Garcia was currently the tribe’s head councilman.

    “His untimely departure is a significant loss for Indian Country, as he was a true culture keeper for his people and a dedicated advocate for Native Nations across the Southwest region,” Fawn Sharp, the president of the National Congress of American Indians, said in a statement.

    “Beyond his role as a leader, Joe Garcia was a mentor, a visionary, and a compassionate soul who touched the lives of many. He leaves a profound legacy of service, leadership, and cultural preservation,” Sharp added.

    Garcia had been chairman of the All Indian Pueblo Council, now renamed the All Pueblo Council of Governors, a non-profit leadership group that represents the modern pueblo tribes.

    He also had been a vice president of the Board of Trustees of the Santa Fe Indian School, which serves about 700 Native American middle and high school students.

    The Santa Fe Indian School noted Garcia’s passing on its website.

    “His work in Indian Country will not be forgotten,” wrote Robyn Aguilar, president of the school’s board of trustees. “I am truly thankful to have had a mentor who was courageous in his conviction to protect Sovereign lands and the rights of Indian children.”

    Garcia held an an electrical engineering degree from the University of New Mexico and worked 25 years for Los Alamos National Laboratory before retiring in 2003, according to the school’s statement.

    Garcia is survived by his wife, Oneva, daughters Melissa and MorningStar, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, among other family. His son, Nathan, died in 2020.

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  • Nick Gilbert, son of Cavaliers owner, dies at 26

    Nick Gilbert, son of Cavaliers owner, dies at 26

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    Nicolas “Nick” Gilbert, the son of Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert who became the team’s good luck charm at NBA draft lotteries, has died

    ByTOM WITHERS AP Sports Writer

    CLEVELAND — Nicolas “Nick” Gilbert, the son of Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert who became the team’s good luck charm at NBA draft lotteries, has died. He was 26.

    A funeral announcement posted by the Ira Kaufman Chapel said Gilbert died Saturday “peacefully at home surrounded by family.”

    Gilbert was diagnosed as a child with neurofibromatosis (NF1), a genetic condition that causes non-cancerous tumors to grow on the brain, spinal cord and skin. There is no cure.

    Wearing a signature bow tie and dark-rimmed glasses, Gilbert became a sensation when he represented the team at the 2011 draft lottery.

    One season after LeBron James left as a free agent, Cleveland wound up with the No. 1 overall pick and used it to select Kyrie Irving, who became an All-Star and later paired with James to win the championship in 2016.

    Then a 14-year-old, Nick Gilbert quipped “What’s not to like?” after his father had praised his efforts and called him his hero.

    Gilbert represented the Cavs at several more lotteries. Cleveland also had the No. 1 pick in 2013 and 2014. He often attended the team’s games at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse with his dad and mom, Jennifer.

    The Cavaliers dedicated their 2022-23 season to the younger Gilbert. The team wore bowtie emblems on their warmups to honor him and raise awareness for the disease. Nick Gilbert was first diagnosed with NF1 as a toddler.

    While he was attending Michigan State in 2018, Gilbert underwent an eight-hour operation on his brain.

    Gilbert’s funeral will be held Tuesday at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan.

    ___

    AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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  • Zimbabwe opposition figure fined for slain activist comments

    Zimbabwe opposition figure fined for slain activist comments

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    HARARE, Zimbabwe — A prominent opposition leader and lawmaker in Zimbabwe was convicted Wednesday of obstructing the course of justice for recording a video of himself accusing ruling party supporters of killing and dismembering an activist and posting the video to social media.

    Job Sikhala, a Parliament member and senior official in the main opposition Citizens Coalition for Change party, was detained nearly 10 months ago. He must pay a $600 fine by Friday or face an additional six months in jail, according to the verdict by a magistrate.

    Sikhala was repeatedly denied bail after his arrest in July. Critics have cited his case as another example of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s attempts to silence the opposition ahead of Zimbabwe’s presidential and parliamentary elections this year.

    The 80-year-old Mnangagwa became president in 2017 after a coup ended the 37-year rule of autocratic leader Robert Mugabe.

    While the coup was initially welcomed by Zimbabweans and Mnangagwa promised democratic reforms, rights groups have recently accused him of being as oppressive as Mugabe.

    Amnesty International and other groups have said the arrest and pretrial detention of the 50-year-old Sikhala and other activists, along with the banning of some political meetings, show Mnangagwa’s willingness to use the justice system against his political opponents.

    Sikhala was arrested after his comments at a memorial service for Ali, an activist and member of Sikhala’s Citizens Coalition for Change who was missing for weeks before her body was found hacked into pieces and stuffed in a well.

    Police have arrested one man in relation to Ali’s slaying and say they haven’t found a political link to the killing. Opposition figures claim the arrested man is an activist with the ruling Zanu PF party.

    Sikhala was the lawyer representing Ali’s family during the search for her. At the memorial service, Sikhala accused ruling party members of killing Ali.

    He was seen on video making the accusation and it was posted on social media. On Wednesday, Magistrate Marewanazvo Gofa ruled that “Sikhala was the one who recorded and uploaded the video” and his comments “misled” police.

    Sikhala must remain in jail even if he pays the $600 fine because he is also on trial on separate charges of inciting public violence for the speech he made at the memorial service for Ali.

    Sikhala has been arrested more than 65 times in the past 20 years, but his lawyers say Wednesday brought his first conviction. The verdict came days after Jacob Ngarivhume, the leader of a fringe political party, was sentenced to four years in jail for a tweet that encouraged people to participate in anti-government protests in 2020. One year of the sentence was suspended.

    Zimbabwe’s general election will be in July or August. Many opposition figures say they are battling intense government repression similar to the time when Mugabe, who died in 2019, was president. Zimbabwe has had a series of violent and disputed elections since it gained independence from white minority rule in 1980.

    Mnangagwa was a Mugabe ally for decades and served as a vice president during 2014-17 before being fired by Mugabe and then taking power in a coup backed by the army. Mnangagwa denies he is clamping down on the opposition and claims his government has improved the political environment.

    Yet in recent months, dozens of opposition supporters, political activists, journalists, church leaders, trade union members and student leaders have been arrested on various charges that legal experts say amount to harassment.

    ___

    More AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

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  • Experts link graves to one of nation’s oldest Black churches

    Experts link graves to one of nation’s oldest Black churches

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    Three men whose graves were found at the original site of one of the nation’s oldest Black churches were members of its congregation in the early 19th century, a team of archaeologists and scientists in Virginia announced Thursday.

    The First Baptist Church was formed in 1776 by free and enslaved Black people in Williamsburg, Virginia’s colonial capital. Members initially gathered in fields and under trees in defiance of laws that prevented African Americans from congregating.

    The church’s original brick foundation was uncovered in 2021 by archaeologists at Colonial Williamsburg, a living history museum that now owns the land. The excavation of graves began last year in partnership with First Baptist’s descendant community.

    More than 60 burial plots have been identified. Thursday’s announcement confirmed what oral histories had long told — that previous generations were buried on the land before it was paved over in the 20th century.

    “Now we know they’re ours — they’re ours,” church member Connie Matthews Harshaw said Thursday. “Those people under that soil are of African descent. We go from there.”

    Three sets of remains were chosen for examination. They underwent DNA testing, bone analysis and the evaluation of archaeological evidence that was found, including 19th century coffin nails. The wood from the hexagonal coffins is long gone.

    Only one set of remains could provide adequate DNA, which can indicate race, said Raquel Fleskes, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Connecticut who conducted the analysis.

    Those remains belonged to a Black man between the ages of 16 and 18 who stood 5 feet, 4 inches tall. His grave contained a clothing button that was made from animal bone and still carried some cotton fiber, said Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg’s director of archaeology.

    The young man’s grave appeared to be marked by an upside-down, empty wine bottle. His coffin was likely moved from a previous location based on the large number of nails — possibly used to reinforce the coffin — and the jumbled way his bones came to rest.

    The young man’s teeth indicated some kind of stress, which could have been malnutrition or disease, said Joseph Jones, a research associate with William & Mary’s Institute for Historical Biology.

    “Childhood health is a pretty good indicator of a population,” Jones added.

    Michael Blakey, the institute’s director, added that few African Americans in Williamsburg were free at the time.

    “It either represents the conditions of an enslaved childhood or far less likely — but possibly — conditions for a free African American in childhood,” Blakey said.

    The two other sets of remains belonged to men between the ages of 35 to 45 and possibly older, based on the analyses of their bones and teeth.

    One of them stood 5 feet, 8 inches and was possibly the oldest of the three. His remains were found with a copper straight pin that likely bound clothing or a funeral shroud.

    The other man stood 5 feet, 7 inches and was buried in a vest and trousers. His leg bones indicated the repetitive use of certain muscles, suggesting the heavy labor of someone who was enslaved.

    The graves in Williamsburg are among Black burial grounds and cemeteries that are scattered throughout the nation and tell the story of the country’s deep past of slavery and segregation. Many Black Americans were excluded from white-owned cemeteries and built their own burial spaces, often as a form of resistance.

    Descendants are working to preserve these grounds and cemeteries, many of which are at risk of being lost and lack support.

    “All over the country there has been reckless disregard for African American bodies,” said Harshaw, of First Baptist.

    “We are now becoming an example to the rest of the country,” she said. “We’re getting interest from everywhere, with people saying, ‘Wait a minute, how do you guys do this?’”

    The church’s original meeting house was destroyed by a tornado in 1834. First Baptist’s second structure, built in 1856, stood there for a century.

    But an expanding Colonial Williamsburg museum bought the property in 1956 and turned it into a parking lot.

    The museum tells the story of Virginia’s late 1700s capital through colonial-era buildings and interpreters. But it failed to tell First Baptist’s story.

    Founded in 1926, the museum did not tell Black stories until 1979, even though more than half of the people who lived in the colonial capital were Black, and many were enslaved.

    In recent years, Colonial Williamsburg has boosted its efforts to tell a more complete story, placing a growing emphasis on African-American history.

    The museum plans to recreate First Baptist’s original meeting house on the land where it once stood, said Gary, the museum’s director of archaeology.

    “A big part of that is to commemorate the space where the burials are located,” he said.

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  • Funeral held for custodian killed in Nashville attack

    Funeral held for custodian killed in Nashville attack

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    NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Mike Hill, a 61-year-old custodian who was among the six people killed in last week’s attack at a Nashville elementary school, was remembered Tuesday for his loving nature, his culinary skills and his faith.

    Hundreds of friends and family members turned out for Hill’s funeral at Stephens Valley Church, where pastor Jim Bachmann said the hearts of the congregation were aching for the man they called “Big Mike.”

    “He was big, and he was strong, and he was tough,” Bachmann said. “But he was also soft and tender.”

    “He hugged my kids and he hugged your kids, and he knew them by name,” Bachmann said. “As the first victim — maybe this is a sentimental thought, but it’s a comfort to me to think that Mike was there to welcome the children through the pearly gates.”

    Hill was among the three adults and three 9-year-old students who were killed in the March 27 mass shooting at The Covenant School. Police shot and killed the 28-year-old former student who carried out the attack. At a news conference Tuesday, several officers described how they had to step around victims and run toward gunfire to find the attacker, amid smoke and smell of gunpowder.

    Hill was one of the few African American members of Stephens Valley, a mostly white suburban church that he attended because of his friendship with Bachmann. The pastor previously founded Covenant Presbyterian Church, where the The Covenant School was located, and the two met and became friends while working there together, Bachmann said.

    The pastor, who is white, said he and Hill were “about as different as two people could be” but shared a faith in Jesus through which “we will be together in heaven for all eternity.”

    The funeral service blended worship traditions, alternating a powerful hymn from a Black gospel choir with meditative instrumental pieces for violin and piano. It concluded with a rendition of “Amazing Grace” played on the bagpipes and drums.

    Hill had seven children and and 14 grandchildren, and he liked spending time with his family and cooking, according to an obituary.

    Bachmann recalled that Hill would often bring him freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. For special occasions, he might bring a pecan or chess pie.

    “He led me into temptation. He did not deliver me from it,” Bachmann joked.

    Addressing the shooting, Bachmann said tragedies like this evoke many emotions besides grief, including anger and confusion.

    “People want change. They want action. They want leadership. They want something decisive to happen so that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again,” he said. “Of course we all want that.”

    Bachmann said he doesn’t have the answers, but he called on those assembled to follow Jesus’s commandment to “love one another as I have loved you.”

    “Love one another and we will have the kind of world we want,” he said. “And we’ll have peace like a river and righteousness like the waves of the sea.”

    Chief John Drake told reporters at a later news conference that he has attended the five funerals held so far.

    The Metro Nashville Police Department brought in several officers to recount how they pursued the shooter at the school.

    Drake said the school’s active shooting training likely prevented more deaths, pointing out how school staff knew to have kids hide by standing against walls, away from windows and out of hallways.

    The department has said that during the attack, the shooter fired 152 rounds before being killed by police. Two officers shot four rounds each, police have said. Police declined to get into additional specifics Tuesday about the gunfire that ended with the shooter’s death.

    Rex Engelbert, one of the first officers to enter the school, said he wasn’t assigned to the precinct. He was heading to the police academy when he heard the shooting call and quickly redirected.

    “I really had no business being where I was,” Engelbert said. “I think you can call it fate, or God, or whatever you want. But I can’t count on both my hands the irregularities that put me in that position.”

    Engelbert’s response is shown on clips of his body camera footage released by the department. A school administrator handed him a key to enter the building, and he shouted out “I need 3!”, instructing other officers to follow him inside.

    Det. Sgt. Jeff Mathis, who said he had never seen Engelbert before that day, entered the same way, alongside three detectives. As they cleared out rooms on the first floor, Engelbert and Mathis said they heard gunshots upstairs. Mathis said officers had to step over a victim while moving toward the gunfire.

    “Doing what our training tells us to do in those situations and following a stimulus, all of us stepped over a victim,” Mathis said. “I, to this day, don’t know how I did that morally, but training is what kicked in.”

    On another side of the school, Det. Michael Collazo said a school employee directed him to enter through the glass door that the shooter had shot through to get into the building. Clips of Collazo’s body camera footage were also made public.

    Collazo said that as he entered the school, he saw a person laid out on the ground, not moving. He hit a locked door to the second floor, then began checking rooms on the first floor until hearing shots from above and moved that way. Eventually, his group and Engelbert’s caught up with each other as they moved toward the shooter’s gunfire.

    “Once we started hearing the first shots, it kind of kicked into overdrive for us,” Collazo said.

    Police have said Engelbert and Collazo were the officers who fired their weapons at the shooter.

    Meanwhile, outside, Commander Dayton Wheeler was helping to set up ambulances when gunfire started firing down from the second-floor window. Police have released a photo of bullet holes in a cruiser.

    The police chief noted that some officers didn’t slow to put on ballistic helmets before heading into the building. Engelbert said he had not put on his rifle-caliber heavy body armor.

    “They got prepared and went right in, knowing that every second, every moment wasted could cost lives,” Drake said.

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  • Mourners gather for 1st Nashville school shooting funeral

    Mourners gather for 1st Nashville school shooting funeral

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    NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Family and friends of Evelyn Dieckhaus, one of three children who were killed in a school shooting in Nashville this week, remembered her Friday as a “shining light” and said farewell to a girl who loved art, music, animals and snuggling with her older sister on the couch.

    The funeral at the Woodmont Christian Church in Nashville’s Green Hills neighborhood was closed to the media. Before the service, the church’s senior minister, the Rev. Clay Stauffer, echoed what Evelyn’s family has shared about her.

    “She was a shining light. She was radiant,” Stauffer told The Associated Press. “I think our challenge is to take her light and keep spreading it to a world that has so much darkness and pain.”

    Evelyn’s was the first funeral held for the victims of Monday’s mass shooting at The Covenant School, where authorities say a 28-year-old former student killed six people before being shot and killed by police.

    The church is a couple of miles from the school and is across the street from the Woodmont Baptist Church, which served as the reunification point for surviving children and their parents after the attack.

    Dozens of people poured into the Woodmont Christian Church’s main sanctuary for the service. Many of the women and girls wore pink dresses to honor the grieving family’s request to dress in pink and green “in tribute to Evelyn’s light and love of color.”

    With the pinkish-purple flowers of redbud trees blooming and mourners donning pastel colors, it looked as much like an Easter service as a funeral for a 9-year-old girl who brought joy and comfort to her loved ones.

    The other two children who died in the attack, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, were also 9. The three adults who were killed were the 60-year-old head of the school, Katherine Koonce, a 61-year-old custodian, Mike Hill, and Cynthia Peak, a 61-year-old substitute teacher.

    In an obituary given to The Associated Press by a family friend, Evelyn was described as “a constant beacon of joy” who loved crafting and drawing, playing with her two dogs Mable and Birdie, singing along to tunes by Taylor Swift and from the Broadway show “Hamilton,” and hanging out with her beloved big sister, Eleanor.

    Stauffer, the minister, said he has been trying to impress upon Evelyn’s family, whom he described as “incredible people,” that they’re not going through this alone.

    “We’ll celebrate her life this afternoon, and then we’ll continue to show up and to be there to love and support the family,” he said.

    That work started as soon as the ambulances, fire trucks and police cars went past his church on the day of the shooting. He went across the street to Woodmont Baptist to help reunite the frightened children and parents.

    “It’s been surreal and a nightmare that we are waiting to wake up from,” said Stauffer. “It’s been one of the hardest weeks you could imagine.”

    ___

    Associated Press reporter Adrian Sainz in Memphis contributed to this report.

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  • Mourners gather for American killed by cartel on Mexico trip

    Mourners gather for American killed by cartel on Mexico trip

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    LAKE CITY, S.C. — Photos of a peewee football player flashed across a slideshow. The image of a smiling young man adorned memorial T-shirts. But the body of the American gunned down three weeks ago by the Gulf cartel in Mexico was kept shielded from funeral-goers.

    Over 100 people gathered Saturday to remember Shaeed Woodard at the first funeral service for the two people killed in the attack that heightened scrutiny of both governments’ response to the cartel’s stronghold over the area. The sendoff came at the end of a month that should have featured birthday celebrations for the man slain just days before he turned 34 during a tightknit group’s road trip to help Woodard’s cousin get cosmetic surgery.

    Instead, friends and family shuffled across the maroon carpeting of Good News Deliverance Temple on an overcast afternoon in Lake City, South Carolina. The 6,000-person town was thrust into the international spotlight when reports circulated early March that Woodard and three friends with ties to the area had been abducted over 1,400 miles away in the border city of Matamoros.

    On March 2, just a few miles across the border, a vehicle crashed into the group’s van as they made their way to a medical appointment for Latavia McGee. Several men with tactical vests and assault rifles surrounded them and shots rang out.

    Woodard and Zindell Brown died; McGee and Eric Williams survived.

    The incident prompted growing calls for action to be taken to crush the Gulf cartel. The cartel’s Scorpions faction apologized in a letter obtained by The Associated Press through a Tamaulipas state law enforcement official.

    At the funeral, spiritual leaders rejected vengeful thinking.

    “We are asking you to give us a clean heart. Because no cartel, no demon, no evil spirit, no hellmaker, no one… We won’t seek retribution,” Minister Dearest Price said. “But, Lord, we ask you to deliver us from evil.”

    There, Nisheeka Simmons read a letter poem for her cousin whose “untimely departure” brought everyone together “in solidarity.” She recalled his sweet nature, strength of mind, and the safety others felt around him.

    A handout featured another poem suggesting Woodard “wanted to celebrate this birthday far different from before” with music, laughter and jokes “out on the open road.”

    “If any of you knew the outcome, you would have cautioned me to stay,” the poem continued. “But those plans were of my Master and could not be delayed.”

    The day contained mixed emotions.

    Pastor Hugh Samuels shared words of consolation for the family shocked by the sudden loss of Woodard and heartened by the return of his cousin, McGee, who survived the brutal kidnappings. A reading from the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes reminded attendees that there is “a time to weep and a time to laugh” and “a time to mourn and a time to dance.”

    Hands clapped and voices rang out during powerful medleys of songs.

    Samuels thanked God for bringing people together in Woodard’s death, which he said should remind people of the future’s uncertainty.

    “Brother Shaeed and three others went to Mexico. But the Son of Man called Brother Shaeed down,” Samuels said. “We are not promised to walk out of this place today. You don’t know when God is going to call your name.”

    Inside the remote shack where the cartel held the four Americans, Mexican investigative documents said, McGee and Williams were blindfolded. The bodies of Woodard and Brown lay beside them wrapped in blankets and plastic bags.

    State Cemetary marked the final resting place for Woodard, whose body had been handed over to U.S. authorities on March 9 after crossing the international bridge to Brownsville, Texas.

    Since then, the Woodards have received an outpouring of support, said Colin Ram, an attorney for the family. Local officials’ sympathy cards were read at the funeral. A nearby activist network promised to raise money. Ram pledged to guide them through the injustice’s fallout.

    “Make no mistake, what happened in Mexico was an act of terrorism that affected the lives of four Americans, of four South Carolinians,” Ram told The Associated Press.

    ___

    James Pollard is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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  • Ex-Navajo president honored in funeral procession, reception

    Ex-Navajo president honored in funeral procession, reception

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    LOW MOUNTAIN, Ariz. — Former Navajo Nation President Peterson Zah was honored Saturday with a funeral procession that stretched for 100 miles (160 kilometers) from western New Mexico into eastern Arizona.

    People lined roads on the reservation to say their final farewells to a monumental leader who made education, family, culture and Navajo language the hallmarks of his life. He fought tirelessly to correct wrongdoings against Native Americans. “He led with compassion and a crystal-clear vision of what is right for the people first,” said Robert Joe, who served as the master of ceremonies at a public reception Saturday afternoon. “He always put the people before him to do what was right and for the interest of the people.”

    Zah died late Tuesday in Fort Defiance, Arizona, surrounded by his family and after a lengthy illness. He was 85.

    Zah was buried in a private service at his family’s cemetery in Low Mountain, Arizona, where he was born.

    The procession passed through several Navajo communities, with people holding their hands to their hearts and displaying signs that declared Zah would be missed. The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority hoisted flags from utility trucks along the route.

    Zah was the first president elected on the Navajo Nation — the largest tribal reservation in the U.S. — in 1990 after the government was restructured into three branches to prevent power from being concentrated in the chairman’s office. At the time, the tribe was reeling from a deadly riot incited by Zah’s political rival, former Chairman Peter MacDonald, a year earlier.

    Zah, who also served a term as tribal chairman, vowed to rebuild the Navajo Nation. Under his leadership, the tribe established a now multi-billion-dollar permanent fund after winning a court battle that found the tribe had authority to tax companies that extracted minerals from the vast reservation.

    “President Zah never lost sight of his purpose: to stand up for the dignity and respect of the Navajo people,” President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden wrote in a letter to Zah’s family Saturday.

    Sometimes referred to as the Native American Robert Kennedy, Zah was known for his charisma, ideas and ability to get things done, including lobbying federal officials to ensure Native Americans could use peyote as a religious sacrament.

    Zah also worked to ensure Native Americans were reflected in federal environmental laws like the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.

    He was well-known for his low-key but stern style of leadership, driving around in a battered, white 1950s International pickup that was on display outside at the public reception Saturday.

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  • Thai cave boy’s ashes arrive home from UK for final farewell

    Thai cave boy’s ashes arrive home from UK for final farewell

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    The cremated ashes of one of the 12 boys rescued from a flooded cave in 2018 have arrived in the far northern Thai province of Chiang Rai

    ByKAWEEWIT KAEWJINDA Associated Press

    CHIANG RAI, Thailand — The cremated ashes of one of the 12 boys rescued from a flooded cave in 2018 arrived on Saturday in the far northern Thai province of Chiang Rai, where Buddhist rites for his funeral will be held over the next few days following his death in the U.K.

    Duangphet “Dom” Phromthep, 17, was found unconscious in his room on Feb. 12 at the Brooke House College Football Academy in Leicestershire and was taken to a hospital, where he died two days later.

    His body was cremated earlier this week in the U.K. with Buddhist monks performing rites at the ceremony in accordance with his family’s wishes. The family watched a live video stream of the funeral in the U.K. from Chiang Rai.

    Duangphet’s ashes were handed over to his family at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok on Saturday morning before they boarded a flight to Chiang Rai.

    Others waited at the Chiang Rai airport, including his grandparents who burst into tears when they were handed a small box containing his ashes. His former coach Ekapol Chanthawong, who was also trapped in the cave with him, held a large portrait of his former student.

    The Thai funeral for Duangphet will take place at Wat Phra That Doi Wao, less than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the Tham Luang Cave, where Dom, along with his teammates and coach, were trapped for more than two weeks in 2018 before they were safely guided out by a team of expert divers.

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  • 2 men killed in second Minnesota shooting outside a funeral

    2 men killed in second Minnesota shooting outside a funeral

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    Two men were killed and three other people were injured in a second shooting outside a funeral in St. Paul, Minnesota, this weekend

    ByThe Associated Press

    February 26, 2023, 12:07 PM

    ST. PAUL, Minn. — Two men were killed and three other people were injured in a second shooting outside a funeral in St. Paul, Minnesota, this weekend.

    The St. Paul Police Department said all five people were shot in a parking lot shortly after 5 p.m. Saturday during an altercation after a celebration-of-life event. One man died at the scene while a second man died at a hospital after he was taken there in a private vehicle.

    The three people were injured included a man who was in critical condition Saturday and two women with injuries not considered life-threatening.

    No arrests had been made as of Sunday morning. None of the victims’ names were released immediately.

    Saturday’s shooting came one day after three teens were shot and injured at a funeral reception for a Harding High School student who had been fatally stabbed at school two weeks earlier.

    Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz tweeted Saturday night that “the gun violence in St. Paul this weekend is unacceptable.”

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  • 3 wounded after reception to mourn teen slain at school

    3 wounded after reception to mourn teen slain at school

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    Authorities say three teenage boys were wounded when gunfire erupted after a funeral reception for a 15-year-old who was fatally stabbed at his St. Paul high school earlier this month

    ByThe Associated Press

    February 25, 2023, 11:53 AM

    ST. PAUL, Minn. — Three teenage boys were wounded when gunfire erupted after a funeral reception for a 15-year-old who was fatally stabbed at his St. Paul high school earlier this month, authorities say.

    The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that none of the wounded teens’ injuries are considered life threatening.

    St. Paul Police Sgt. Mike Ernster says the three were hurt Friday night when shots were fired out of a white sedan at the El Rio Vista Recreation Center as the funeral reception for Devin Scott wrapped up. The Harding High School student was killed on Feb. 10, and a 16-year-old is charged with murder.

    After the shooting, the sedan crashed less than half a mile away from the recreation center, and two people fled. Ernster said police apprehended a 16-year-old who was running from the area armed with a modified handgun.

    Police are trying to determine what his role was.

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  • Funerals held for victims of Michigan State campus attack

    Funerals held for victims of Michigan State campus attack

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    GROSSE POINTE FARMS, Mich. — The first funerals were held Saturday for students who were killed in this week’s mass shooting at Michigan State University.

    Mourners in the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe Farms filed into St. Paul on the Lake Catholic Church to remember 20-year-old sophomore Brian Fraser, who was one of three students killed in Monday’s attack.

    “He’s one of those charismatic, smiling, humorous, good-natured young men that is hard not to like,” Father Jim Bilot said during Fraser’s service. “So this was a great gift he had and he used that gift for the glory and honor of God because he honored the gift that had been given to him. He was very athletic, very competitive. I heard he wasn’t always that great in his sports, but certainly loved being part of the team.”

    At the same time, a funeral was held for 20-year-old junior Alexandria Verner at the Guardian Angels Catholic Church in Clawson, a suburb a few miles (kilometers) to the northwest.

    During that service, Verner’s family placed a small wooden cross with her name on it on the church’s remembrance wall.

    They were among eight students who were shot in the attack at two buildings on the Michigan State campus in East Lansing, including five who were wounded but survived. A memorial service was scheduled for later Saturday for the third student killed, 19-year-old junior Arielle Anderson, whose funeral is set for next week.

    Four of the wounded students remained in critical condition Friday at a Lansing hospital. The fifth victim remained hospitalized in stable condition.

    Police say Anthony McRae, a 43-year-old man with no connection to the school, walked into Berkey Hall where evening classes were being held and opened fire in a classroom. He then walked to the nearby MSU Student Union and fired more shots before fleeing.

    After the attack, he walked a few miles (kilometers) toward his Lansing home. He said nothing before he killed himself after being confronted by police, authorities said.

    Detectives found two handguns, ammunition and a note containing a possible motive for the attack. Police said it appeared from the note that McRae felt he had been slighted in some way by people or businesses, adding that he had no connection to the victims or the school.

    Fraser previously attended Grosse Pointe South High School. He was president of Michigan State’s chapter of Phi Delta Theta fraternity.

    Verner was a 2020 graduate of Clawson High School. She was studying integrated biology and anthropology, according to her LinkedIn profile.

    Anderson graduated from Grosse Pointe North High School. Her family said in a statement that she was pushing to graduate early from Michigan State, hoping to become a surgeon as quickly as possible.

    ___

    This story was updated to correct the spelling of Alexandria Verner’s first name, which had been misspelled “Alexandra.”

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  • Public now can see Benedict’s tomb at St. Peter’s Basilica

    Public now can see Benedict’s tomb at St. Peter’s Basilica

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    VATICAN CITY — The public can now visit the tomb of Pope Benedict XVI in the grottoes under St. Peter’s Basilica.

    The pontiff was buried on Jan. 5 immediately following a funeral in St. Peter’s Square. Benedict’s tomb lies in the grottoes under the basilica’s main floor.

    The Vatican announced on Saturday that the public could visit the tomb starting Sunday morning.

    Benedict had lived since 2013 as pope emeritus, following his retirement from the papacy, the first pontiff to do so in 600 years. He died on Dec. 31 at the age of 95, in the Vatican monastery where he spent his last years.

    On Thursday, his longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, imparted a final blessing after Benedict’s body, contained inside three coffins — the cypress one displayed in the square during the funeral presided over by Pope Francis, a zinc one and an outer one hewn from oak — were lowered into a space in the floor.

    The remains were placed in the former tomb of Benedict’s predecessor, St. John Paul II. John Paul’s remains were moved up to a chapel on the main floor of the basilica following his 2011 beatification.

    Some 50,000 people attended Benedict’s funeral, following three days of the body’s lying in state in the basilica, an event which drew nearly 200,000 viewers.

    The name of Benedict, the Catholic church’s 265th pontiff, was engraved on a white marble slab, the Vatican said.

    The Vatican didn’t say whether Pope Francis had privately visited the completed tomb of Benedict before public viewing was permitted, or might do so at some other time.

    On Sunday morning, Francis was leading a ceremony for the baptism of 13 babies in the Sistine Chapel. The chapel, frescoed by Michelangelo, is the traditional setting for the baptisms, an event which closes out the Vatican’s year-end ceremonies.

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  • EXPLAINER: Benedict’s funeral to be simple, but with pomp

    EXPLAINER: Benedict’s funeral to be simple, but with pomp

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    VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI held one of the world’s highest-profile positions but in his final years expressed a desire to be “hidden to the world.” While his body had been on display this week for three days, his funeral Thursday will at least in part respect his wishes for simplicity but also feature some of the pomp reserved for a leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

    Some rites will take place out of the public eye. There will be other forms of tradition-laden ceremony in St. Peter’s Square before tens of thousands of people, including national leaders and representatives of various countries’ royal families.

    Benedict died at 95 on Dec. 31 in the monastery on the Vatican grounds where he had spent nearly all of his decade in retirement, his days mainly devoted to prayer and reflection. This week, as the Catholic Church bids farewell to its 265th pontiff, it will use a mixture of rituals — some ancient, some tweaked for modern times.

    Some of the details of the Vatican’s formal farewell.

    WHAT COFFINS WILL BE USED?

    On Wednesday evening, after the last visitors left St. Peter’s Basilica, where Benedict’s body had been on display, it was to be placed into a coffin hewn from cypress trees in a strictly private moment.

    Before the cover is placed atop the coffin, objects identified with Benedict’s nearly eight-year-long papacy will be placed inside, the Vatican said. They include medallions and Vatican coins bearing his image that were minted during his papacy and circulated in euro dominations.

    A one-page written account of his papacy — known in Italian as a “rogito,” a word indicating an official deed — is rolled up and slipped inside a cylindrical tube, then placed inside the coffin. Also being buried with Benedict are the palliums, distinguished hallmarks of his clerical career. A slender stole, fashioned from lambs wool by nuns at a cloister in Rome, it is a potent symbol of popes, who are also the bishop of Rome, and, as such pastors of the flock of Catholic faithful.

    Benedict had an image of a pallium integrated into his papal emblem. The stole is also bestowed on cardinals and on archbishops. Benedict in his career served as archbishop of Munich in his native Germany and was elevated to cardinal’s rank by St. Pope Paul VI in 1977.

    At the funeral’s conclusion, Benedict coffin returns to the basilica and is brought down to the grottoes under the main floor. There, near the underground crypt where he chose as his final resting place, the cypress coffin will be placed inside one made of zinc. That coffin in turn will be placed inside a third one, made of oak.

    HOW WILL THE FUNERAL UNFOLD?

    The coffin will return to the public’s view about 8:45 a.m. (0745GMT) Thursday when it is carried out of the basilica. The faithful in St. Peter’s Square, who are expected to number at least 60,000, have been invited to recite the rosary aloud. Pope Francis will preside over the funeral, taking his place in front of a canopied altar, and delivering the homily and key invocations.

    But celebrating the Mass at the altar will be Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the College of Cardinals. For Benedict’s funeral, Francis will lead the final rites. Those involve reciting a formal farewell known in Latin as “Ultima Commendatio et Valedictio” and sprinkling the remains with blessed water and incense.

    Most of the liturgy in the Mass mirrors those in funerals for reigning pontiffs. There will be one notable exception: past funerals, including John Paul’s in 2005, included special “suppliche,” or prayful implorations — featuring a long litany of the names of saints — reflecting a pontiff’s role as Bishop of Rome and also head of the Eastern rite churches.

    But because Benedict had retired from the papacy before he died, no such implorations will ring out across the square.

    WHERE WILL BE BENEDICT’S FINAL RESTING PLACE BE?

    Benedict’s remains will go into a crypt where John Paul’s tomb had rested. John Paul’s remains were moved upstairs from the grottoes and into the main basilica for his 2011 beatification during Benedict’s papacy. Pope Francis declared the Polish pontiff a saint in 2014.

    ___

    Nicole Winfield contributed reporting.

    ___

    More on the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: https://apnews.com/hub/pope-benedict-xvi

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  • Pope praises ‘acute and gentle’ Benedict ahead of funeral

    Pope praises ‘acute and gentle’ Benedict ahead of funeral

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    VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis praised Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s “acute and gentle thought” as he presided over a packed Wednesday general audience in the Vatican, while thousands of people paid tribute to the former pope on the final day of public viewing in St. Peter’s Basilica.

    Francis was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd in the Paul VI auditorium and shouts of “Viva il papa!” or “Long live the pope” as he arrived for his weekly catechism appointment with the faithful.

    This week’s audience drew an unusually large crowd given the more than 130,000 people who have flocked to the Vatican following Benedict’s death on Saturday and lined up to pay their respect to the German pope, who is lying in state in the basilica.

    Francis is due to preside over Benedict’s funeral on Thursday, an event that is drawing heads of state and royalty despite Benedict’s requests for simplicity and Vatican efforts to keep the first Vatican funeral for an emeritus pope in modern times low-key.

    Francis drew applause when he opened his remarks by noting all those who were outside paying tribute to Benedict, whom he called a “great master of catechesis.”

    “His acute and gentle thought was not self-referential, but ecclesial, because he always wanted to accompany us in the encounter with Jesus,” Francis said.

    Later Wednesday, Vatican officials were to place Benedict’s body in three coffins — one of cypress wood, one of zinc, and then a second wooden casket — along with a written account of his historic papacy, the coins minted during his pontificate and his pallium stoles.

    The coffins are to be sealed before Thursday’s funeral and burial in the crypt once occupied by the tomb of St. John Paul II in the grottos underneath the basilica.

    Benedict, who was elected pope in 2005 following John Paul’s death, became the first pope in six centuries years to resign when he announced in 2013 he no longer had the strength to lead the Catholic Church. After Francis was elected pope, he spent his nearly decade-long retirement in a converted monastery in the Vatican Gardens.

    ———

    More on the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI:

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  • Brazilians mourn Pelé at the stadium where he got his start

    Brazilians mourn Pelé at the stadium where he got his start

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    SANTOS, Brazil — Thousands of mourners, including high school students and supreme court justices, began filing past the body of Pelé on Monday on the century-old field where he made his hometown team one of Brazil’s best.

    The soccer great died on Thursday after a battle with cancer. He was the only player ever to win three World Cups, and he was 82.

    Pelé’s coffin, draped in the flags of Brazil and the Santos FC club, was placed on the midfield area of Vila Belmiro, the stadium outside Sao Paulo that was his home for most of his career. A Catholic Mass will be celebrated there Tuesday morning before his burial at a nearby cemetery. Brazil’s newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will come to Vila Belmiro shortly before Pelé’s coffin is removed from the stadium.

    The storied 16,000-seat stadium was surrounded by mourners, and covered with Pelé-themed decorations. Fans coming out of the stadium said they’d waited three hours in line, standing under a blazing sun.

    Forty-five years after Pelé played his last game, he’s still a central part of Brazil’s national story.

    Geovana Sarmento, 17, came with her father, who was wearing a Brazil shirt with Pelé’s name.

    “I am not a Santos fan, neither is my father. But this guy invented Brazil’s national team. He made Santos stronger, he made it big, how could you not respect him? He is one of the greatest people ever, we needed to honor him,” she said.

    In the 1960s and 70s, Pelé was perhaps the world’s most famous athlete. He met presidents and queens, and in Nigeria a civil war was put on hold to watch him play. Many Brazilians credit him with putting the country on the world stage.

    Caio Zalke, 35, an engineer, also wore a Brazil shirt as he waited in line. “Pelé is the most important Brazilian of all time. He made soccer important for Brazil and he made Brazil important for the world,” he said.

    Rows of shirts with Pelé’s number 10 were placed behind one of the goals, waving in the city’s summer winds. A section of the stands was filling up with bouquets of flowers placed by mourners and sent by clubs and star players — Neymar and Ronaldo among them — from around the world as loudspeakers played a song named “Eu sou Pelé” (“I am Pelé”) that was recorded by the Brazilian himself.

    Claudio Carrança, 32, a salesman, said: “I never saw him play, but loving Pelé is a tradition that goes from father to son in Santos. I learned his history, saw his goals, and I see how Santos FC is important because he is important. I know some Santos fans have children supporting other teams. But that’s just because they never saw Pelé in action. If they had, they would feel this gratitude I feel now.”

    Santos FC said that more than 1,100 journalists from 23 countries were at the funeral. Dignitaries and friends of Pelé in attendance spoke at the funeral.

    Among them was Pelé’s best friend Manoel Maria, who is also a former Santos player. “If I had all the wealth in the world I would never be able to repay what this man did for me and my family. He was as great a man as he was as a player; the best of all time. His legacy will outlive us all. And that can be seen in this long line with people of all ages here.”

    FIFA President Gianni Infantino told journalists that every country should name a stadium after Pelé.

    “I am here with a lot of emotion, sadness, but also with a smile because he gave us so many smiles,” Infantino said. “As FIFA, we will pay a tribute to the ‘King’ and we ask the whole world to observe a minute of silence.”

    Another fan and friend in line was Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes.

    “It is a very sad moment, but we are now seeing the real meaning of this legendary player to our country,” Mendes told journalists. “My office has shirts signed by Pelé, a picture of him as a goalkeeper, also signed by him. DVDs, photos, a big collection of him.”

    Mendes also said Pelé was a humble man despite his global fame, and that he deserves every tribute.

    The casket will be ushered through the streets of Santos before his burial Tuesday.

    Pelé had undergone treatment for colon cancer since 2021. The medical center where he had been hospitalized said he died of multiple organ failure as a result of the cancer.

    The soccer star led Brazil to World Cup titles in 1958, 1962 and 1970, and remains one of the team’s all-time leading scorers with 77 goals. Neymar tied Pelé’s record during this year’s World Cup in Qatar.

    ———

    AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

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  • Danish screenwriter Lise Nørgaard dies at age 105

    Danish screenwriter Lise Nørgaard dies at age 105

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    COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Lise Nørgaard, a screenwriter who penned the popular epic television drama “Matador” about the lives of ordinary Danish families in a fictitious provincial town during the recession of the 1930s and the hard times of World War II, has died. She was 105.

    Nørgaard died Sunday after a brief illness, her family said Monday. She is also known for having written her 1992 Memoirs “Kun en pige,” recounting her struggle to become a female reporter.

    She worked at major Danish newspapers, including Politiken and Berlingske. She started her career at local newspaper Roskilde Dagblad in her hometown of Roskilde, located 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Copenhagen.

    “We say goodbye to a national treasure,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Instagram. “A strong and people-loving woman who was never afraid to take the lead. She gave us Matador. A piece of Danish history.”

    Danish lawmakers tweeted Monday in honor of Nørgaard, who was little known outside Scandinavia and Germany.

    Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said that “culture has lost a piece of life. And Denmark an important witness and contributor to its contemporaries.”

    German Ambassador Pascal Hector tweeted that her television show “Matador,” which he called a “masterpiece” was “my first encounter with the Danish language and the country’s history.”

    The setting for 24-episode “Matador,” which was first broadcast in 1978 and shown as repeats over the years, was a fictitious Danish town named Korsbaek. Several Danish actors got their breakthroughs in the four-season show, which ended in 1982, and part of the make-believe town was recreated in a Danish amusement park.

    Nørgaard retired as a writer and a lecturer in 2018. Funeral arrangements weren’t immediately announced.

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  • 65,000 view Benedict XVI’s body lying in state at Vatican

    65,000 view Benedict XVI’s body lying in state at Vatican

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    VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI ’s body, his head resting on a pair of crimson pillows, lay in state in St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday as tens of thousands queued to pay tribute to the pontiff who shocked the world by retiring a decade ago.

    On the eve of the first of three days of viewing, Italian security officials had said at least 25,000-30,000 people would come on Monday. But by the end of the first day’s viewing, some 65,000 persons had passed by the bier, the Vatican said.

    As daylight broke, 10 white-gloved Papal Gentlemen — lay assistants to pontiffs and papal households — carried the body on a cloth-covered wooden stretcher after its arrival at the basilica to its resting place in front of the main altar under Bernini’s towering bronze canopy.

    A Swiss Guard saluted as Benedict’s body was brought in through a side door after it was transferred in a van from the chapel of the monastery grounds where the increasingly frail, 95-year-old former pontiff died on Saturday morning.

    His longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, and a handful of consecrated laywomen who served in Benedict’s household, followed the van by foot for a few hundred yards in a silent procession toward the basilica. Some of the women stretched out a hand to touch the body with respect.

    Before the rank-and-file faithful were allowed into the basilica, prayers were recited and the basilica’s archpriest, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, sprinkled holy water over the body, and a small cloud of incense was released near the bier. Benedict’s hands were clasped, a rosary around his fingers.

    Just after 9 a.m. (0800 GMT), the doors of the basilica were swung open so the public, some of whom had waited for hours in the pre-dawn damp, could pay their respects to the late pontiff, who retired from the papacy in 2013 — the first pope to do so in 600 years.

    Faithful and curious, the public strode briskly up the center aisle to pass by the bier with its cloth draping after waiting in a line that by midmorning snaked around St. Peter’s Square.

    Benedict’s body was dressed with a miter, the peaked headgear of a bishop, and a red cloak.

    Filippo Tuccio, 35, said he came from Venice on an overnight train to view Benedict’s body.

    “I wanted to pay homage to Benedict because he had a key role in my life and my education,” Tuccio said.

    “When I was young I participated in World Youth Days,″ he said, referring to the jamborees of young faithful held periodically and attended by pontiffs. Tuccio added that he had studied theology, and “his pontificate accompanied me during my university years.”

    “He was very important for me: for what I am, my way of thinking, my values,” Tuccio continued.

    Among those coming to the basilica viewing was Cardinal Walter Kasper, like Benedict, a German theologian. Kasper served as head of the Vatican’s Christian unity office during Benedict’s papacy.

    Benedict left an “important mark” on theology and spirituality, but also on the history of the papacy with his courage to step aside, Kasper told The Associated Press.

    “This resignation wasn’t a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength, a greatness because he saw that he was no longer up to the challenges of being pope,” Kasper said.

    Kasper, who was among the cardinals who elected Benedict to the papacy in 2005, added that the resignation gave “a more human vision to the papacy: that the pope is a man and is dependent on his physical and mental strengths.”

    Public viewing was set for 10 hours on Monday, and 12 hours each on Tuesday and Wednesday before Thursday morning’s funeral, which will be led by Pope Francis, at St. Peter’s Square.

    As Benedict desired, the funeral will marked by simplicity, the Vatican said when announcing the death on Saturday.

    Workers on Monday were setting up an altar in the square for the funeral Mass. Also being arranged were rows of chairs for the faithful who want to attend the funeral. Authorities said they expected about 60,000 to come for the Mass.

    On Monday, the Vatican confirmed widely reported burial plans. In keeping with his wishes, Benedict’s tomb will be in the crypt of the grotto under the basilica that was last used by St. John Paul II, before the saint’s body was moved upstairs into the main basilica ahead of his 2011 beatification, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.

    At two sides of the piazza’s colonnade, viewers went through the usual security measures required for tourists entering the basilica — passing through metal detectors and screening bags through an X-ray machine.

    Marina Ferrante, 62, was among them.

    “I think his main legacy was teaching us how to be free,” she said. “He had a special intelligence in saying what was essential in his faith and that was contagious” for other faithful. “The thing I thought when he died was that I would like to be as free as he was.”

    While venturing that the shy, bookworm German churchman and theologian and the current Argentine-born pontiff had different temperaments, Ferrante said: “I believe there’s a continuity between him and Pope Francis and whoever understands the real relationship between them and Christ can see that.”

    An American man who lives in Rome called the opportunity to view the body “an amazing experience.” Mountain Butorac, 47, who is originally from Atlanta, said he arrived 90 minutes before dawn.

    “I loved Benedict, I loved him as a cardinal (Joseph Ratzinger), when he was elected pope and also after he retired,” Butorac said. “I think he was a sort of people’s grandfather living in the Vatican.”

    With an organ and choir’s soft rendition of “Kyrie Eleison” (“Lord, have mercy” in ancient Greek) in the background, ushers moved well-wishers along at a steady clip down the basilica’s center aisle.. Someone left a red rose.

    A few VIPs had a moment before the general public to pay their respects, including Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, the far-right leader who in the past has professed admiration for the conservative leanings of Benedict.

    Italian President Sergio Mattarella also came to view the body. The Vatican has said only two nations’ official delegations — from Italy and from Benedict’s native Germany — were invited formally to the funeral, since the pope emeritus was no longer head of state.

    Sister Regina Brand was among the mourners who came to the square before dawn.

    “He’s a German pope and I am from Germany,” she said. “And I am here to express my gratitude and love, and I want to pray for him and to see him.”

    ___

    Trisha Thomas and Nicole Winfield contributed to this report.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of Pope Benedict XVI: https://apnews.com/hub/pope-benedict-xvi

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  • Thousands line up for viewing of Benedict’s body at Vatican

    Thousands line up for viewing of Benedict’s body at Vatican

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    VATICAN CITY — Thousands of people lined up across St. Peter’s Square hours before dawn on Monday to view Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI ‘s body and pay their respects.

    Public viewing lasts for 10 hours on Monday in St. Peter’s Basilica. Twelve hours of viewing are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday before Thursday morning’s funeral, which will be led by Pope Francis, in the square.

    The frail, 95-year-old Benedict died Saturday morning in the Vatican monastery where he had lived since his retirement in 2013 when he became the first pontiff to resign in 600 years.

    Security officials expected at least 25,000 people to pass by the body on the first day of viewing.

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of Pope Benedict XVI: https://apnews.com/hub/pope-benedict-xvi

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  • New York OKs human composting law; 6th state in US to do so

    New York OKs human composting law; 6th state in US to do so

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    ALBANY, N.Y. — Howard Fischer, a 63-year old investor living north of New York City, has a wish for when he dies. He wants his remains to be placed in a vessel, broken down by tiny microbes and composted into rich, fertile soil.

    Maybe his composted remains could be planted outside the family home in Vermont, or maybe they could be returned to the earth elsewhere. “Whatever my family chooses to do with the compost after it’s done is up to them,” Fischer said.

    “I am committed to having my body composted and my family knows that,” he added. “But I would love for it to happen in New York where I live rather than shipping myself across the country.”

    Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation on Saturday to legalize natural organic reduction, popularly known as human composting, making New York the sixth state in the nation to allow that method of burial.

    Washington state became the first state to legalize human composting in 2019, followed by Colorado and Oregon in 2021, and Vermont and California in 2022.

    For Fischer, this alternative, green method of burial aligns with his philosophical view on life: to live in an environmentally conscious way.

    The process goes like this: the body of the deceased is placed into a reusable vessel along with plant material such as wood chips, alfalfa and straw. The organic mix creates the perfect habitat for naturally occurring microbes to do their work, quickly and efficiently breaking down the body in about a month’s time.

    The end result is a heaping cubic yard of nutrient-dense soil amendment, the equivalent of about 36 bags of soil, that can be used to plant trees or enrich conservation land, forests, or gardens.

    For urban areas such as New York City where land is limited, it can be seen as a pretty attractive burial alternative.

    Michelle Menter, manager at Greensprings Natural Cemetery Preserve, a cemetery in central New York, said the facility would “strongly consider” the alternative method.

    “It definitely is more in line with what we do,” she added.

    The 130-acre (52-hectare) nature preserve cemetery, nestled between protected forest land, offers natural, green burials which is when a body can be placed in a biodegradable container and into a gravesite so that it can decompose fully.

    “Every single thing we can do to turn people away from concrete liners and fancy caskets and embalming, we ought to do and be supportive of,” she said.

    But not all are onboard with the idea.

    The New York State Catholic Conference, a group that represents bishops in the state, has long opposed the bill, calling the burial method “inappropriate.”

    “A process that is perfectly appropriate for returning vegetable trimmings to the earth is not necessarily appropriate for human bodies,” Dennis Poust, executive director of the organization, said in a statement.

    “Human bodies are not household waste, and we do not believe that the process meets the standard of reverent treatment of our earthly remains,” he said.

    Katrina Spade, the founder of Recompose, a full-service green funeral home in Seattle that offers human composting, said it offers an alternative for people wanting to align the disposition of their remains with how they lived their lives.

    She said “it feels like a movement” among the environmentally aware.

    “Cremation uses fossil fuels and burial uses a lot of land and has a carbon footprint,” said Spade. “For a lot of folks being turned into soil that can be turned to grow into a garden or tree is pretty impactful.”

    ———

    Maysoon Khan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Maysoon Khan on Twitter at: twitter.com/MaysoonKhan.

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