Former pontiff Pope Benedict XVI passes away at the ripe old age of 95 in the Vatican

FORMER pope and head of the catholic Church Benedict XVI has passed away at the ripe old age of 95 almost a decade after he became the first pontiff to resign in six centuries citing ill health for his decision.

Named as a pope emeritus following his resignation, the German clergyman whose birth name was Joseph Ratzinger, had been living a quiet life in a former convent inside the Vatican grounds since his shock decision to step down in February 2013. His health had been declining for a long time and the Vatican revealed earlier this week that his situation had worsened.

Earlier today, the former pope passed away and his death brings to an end an unprecedented situation in which two men in white, Pope Benedict and the incumbent Pope Francis, living together within the walls of the Vatican. While there is no rulebook for former popes, Pope Benedict’s funeral is expected to be at the Vatican, presided over by Pope Francis.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, said: “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.”

In 2005 the body of John Paul II, the last pope to die, lay in state before a funeral mass in St Peter’s Square attended by 1m people, including heads of state. Pope Benedict had almost entirely withdrawn from public view, his health reported to be shaky and the few photographs that emerged of him exposing his frailty.

Back in 2013, he had cited his declining physical and mental health in his decision to become the first pope since 1415 to give up the job as head of the worldwide Catholic church. Pope Benedict was a brilliant theologian but his papacy was beset by Vatican in-fighting and a scandal over clerical sexual abuse of children that rocked the Catholic Church the world over, in which he was criticised for a lack of leadership.

This abuse scandal overshadowed his final months after a damning report for the German church in January 2022 accused him of personally failing to stop four predatory priests in the 1980s while archbishop of Munich. He denied wrongdoing and the Vatican strongly defended his record in being the first pope to apologise for the scandals, expressing his own deep remorse and met with victims.

Born on April 16, 1927, in Bavaria, Pope Benedict was 78 when he succeeded the long-reigning and popular John Paul II in April 2005, the first German pope of the modern era. Unlike his successor Pope Francis, a Jesuit who delights in being among his flock, Pope Benedict was a conservative intellectual dubbed God’s Rottweiler in a previous post as chief doctrinal enforcer.

His papacy was dogged by controversy, from comments that angered the Muslim world to a money-laundering scandal at the Vatican Bank and a personal humiliation when, in 2012, his butler leaked secret papers to the media. Despite saying he would live hidden from the world after his resignation, Pope Benedict repeatedly intervened on key issues facing the Catholic Church through books, interviews and articles.

In January 2020, he expressed his opposition to allowing priests to marry, while a year earlier, he blamed clerical abuse scandals on the 1960s sexual revolution and a collapse in faith in the West. In an interview in March 2021, he said there is only one pope but acknowledged fanatical supporters who refused to accept his resignation.