Former pope Benedict XVI has died at the age of 95, the Vatican announced Saturday, almost a decade after he became the first pontiff to resign in six centuries. READ:
His death brought to an end an unprecedented situation in which two “men in white”—Benedict and his successor Pope Francis—had co-existed within the walls of the tiny city state.
The body of Benedict will be displayed from Monday morning in St Peter’s Basilica, to allow the faithful to pay their respects.Crowds visiting St Peter’s on Saturday expressed sorrow at the news of his death, but also admiration. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hailed him as a “giant of faith and reason… a great figure in history.”
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 one million people, including heads of state. 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 criticized for a lack of leadership.
Born on April 16, 1927 in Marktl am Inn, in Bavaria, 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, Benedict was a conservative intellectual dubbed “God’s Rottweiler” in a previous post as chief doctrinal enforcer.
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