By Philip Pullella and Crispian Balmer VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Thousands of people began arriving in the dark of the night on Thursday to attend the funeral of former Pope Benedict, a hero to Roman Catholic conservatives who shocked the world by resigning nearly a decade ago. Some began arriving in the Vatican area as early as 4 a.m. (0300 GMT), five and half hours before the funeral presided over by his successor, Pope Francis, was due to begin in St. Peter’s Square. As a thick fog shrouded the Italian capital, they started going through security checks before dawn to begin taking their seats…