VATICAN CITY: Former pope Benedict XVI has died at the age of 95 at his Vatican residence on Saturday.
Vatican issued a statement on the death of pope. It read, “With sorrow, I inform you that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, passed away today at 9:34 in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican.”
The Vatican said that on January 2, Pope Emeritus’ body would be placed in St. Peter’s Basilica for “the greeting of the faithful.” “Further information will be provided as soon as possible,” said the Vatican.
On Wednesday, Pope Francis announced that his predecessor was “very ill” and appealed for prayers during his weekly general audience.
Although the former pope had been ailing for some time, the Vatican claimed that because of his advanced age, his condition had worsened
Pontiff Benedict was “one of the great theologians of the 20th century,” said Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.
He led the Roman Catholic Church for less than eight years, and in 2013, he stepped down and became the first pontiff in 600 years to resign since Gregory XII in 1415.
The Cardinals chose him from among their number on April 19, 2005, to succeed the 27-year-reigning, enormously popular Pope John Paul II. They were looking for steadiness and what one may refer to as a “safe pair of hands.”
For nearly 25 years, Benedict served as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the powerful leader of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, formerly known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).
The eight-year pontificate of Benedict, the first German pope in a millennium, was marred by mistakes and a leaks scandal. Benedict acknowledged that he was a bad administrator and that he lacked “resolve in governing and decision-taking.”
The majority of his papacy was marred by child abuse scandals, but he is credited with reviving the effort to decipline or defrock deviant priests after his predecessor’s more permissive approach.
Following his resignation, the Church’s conservatives looked to the former pope as their leader, and some extreme traditionalists even refused to recognise Francis as the true pope.
They have criticised Francis for his openness toward the LGBTQ+ community and Catholics who have divorced and remarried outside the Church, claiming that both of these actions undermine traditional norms.
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