Retired in the monastery of the Vatican gardens since 2013, he died. Former Pope Benedict XVI, 95, died on Saturday, December 31, the Vatican announced. Pope Francis announced on December 28 that his predecessor was ” seriously ill “ and that it was necessary to pray for him.
> Watch the video portrait of ex-Pope Benedict XVI:
After 3 days in serious but stable condition, the pope emeritus died. “I am sorry to announce that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, died today at 9:34 a.m., at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, in the Vatican. Further information will be communicated to you as soon as possible.announced in a press release the director of the press service of the Holy See, Matteo Bruni.
His body will be on display from Monday morning in the solemn setting of Saint Peter’s Basilica to allow the faithful to greet him. The funeral of the 265th pope should be celebrated by his successor Francis in Rome, an unprecedented event in the two thousand year history of the Catholic Church which tens of thousands of people could attend, including heads of state.
Benedict XVI had appeared more and more fragile in recent months, moving around in a wheelchair, but he continued to receive visitors. The photos of his last visit received, dating from December 1, showed a frail and visibly weakened man.
His resignation in 2013, a unique gesture in 700 years
His death puts an end to the unusual cohabitation of two men in white: the German Joseph Ratzinger, a brilliant theologian not very comfortable with crowds, and the Argentinian Jorge Bergoglio, a Jesuit endowed with an incisive word who wanted put the poor and migrants back at the center of the Church’s mission.
Real name Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI went down in history for having resigned in 2013, an unprecedented gesture in 700 years that he had justified by saying he was too weak to “exercise the ministry properly” of head of the Church.
With this gesture, unprecedented in six centuries, the first German pope in modern history paved the way for his successors whose strength would come to decline. François, 86 years old and suffering from knee pain, himself left ” opened “ this possibility.
To purify the Church of its “defilements”
At the highest level of the Catholic Church for eight years, Benoit XVI was not spared from scandals: his private correspondence thrown to the media, the Vatican bank – Institute for the Works of Religion – accused of money laundering. money, a “conspiracy” is engineered by his enemies.
Benedict XVI, the pope who didn’t want to be pope
Brilliant theologian but not very comfortable with crowds, he will have experienced the extreme difficulty of facing the crisis of the Church. He will also have his ” hit “he who had announced that he wanted to purify the Church of its “defilements”. We remember the famous letter to Irish Catholics on the crimes of pedophilia committed by members of the clergy, in which he recognized the “seriousness of the faults committed” and asked God and the victims for forgiveness, going so far as to advocate collaboration between the Church and civil justice.
However, Benedict XVI also ended up being overtaken by the drama of pedocrime in the Church and the remarks he had made. In early 2022, he was also implicated by a report in Germany on his handling of sexual violence when he was Archbishop of Munich, he broke his silence to ask ” sorry “ but had assured never to have covered pedophile.
