Former Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passes away at 95 in Vatican city. Within the walls of the Vatican Benedict spent his final years at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery.
Meanwhile, a statement was issued by the Vatican, “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.”
“Further information will be provided as soon as possible,” the Vatican statement reads.
Moreover, from 2 January the body of Pope Emeritus will be placed in St Peter’s Basilica for “the greeting of the faithful”.
For some time the former pontiff had been ill and because of advancing age, there was an aggravation in his condition.
Earlier on Wednesday, at the Vatican Pope Francis appealed to his final audience of the year to “pray a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict.”
Talking about Pope Benedict the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, said “Pope Benedict was one of the great theologians of the 20th century”.
“I remember with particular affection the remarkable Papal Visit to these lands in 2010. We saw his courtesy, his gentleness, the perceptiveness of his mind, and the openness of his welcome to everybody that he met,” the statement reads.
“He was through and through a gentleman, through and through a scholar, through and through a pastor, through and through a man of God – close to the Lord and always his humble servant,” Nichols said.
Former Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was born in Joseph Ratzinger in Germany and when he became one of the oldest popes he was 78 in 2005.
However, in 2022 the former Pope admitted that from 1977 to 1982 mistakes were made in the treatment of abuse cases when he was archbishop of Munich.
