Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died

“It is with sadness that I announce that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passed away today at 9:34 a.m. in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican,” said Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni. “More information will follow as soon as possible,” he added. As of Monday, the deceased former pope is to be laid out in St. Peter’s Basilica, it said.

Recently, the 95-year-old’s health had deteriorated. Prayers for the Pope Emeritus had taken place worldwide in the past few days. The diocese of Rome commemorated its former bishop and pope on Friday evening with a mass in the Lateran Basilica. For Benedict XVI was also prayed in the Sanctuary of Fatima and in Latin America.

At the general audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis reported on the deteriorating health of the former head of the church.

As a sign of mourning over the death of the emeritus pope, the pummerin of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna rings for five minutes. The bells of the cathedral churches throughout Austria also join in the mourning ring, as the Austrian Bishops’ Conference confirmed to Kathpress on Saturday.

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn said on Twitter that he thinks “with great gratitude” of Pope Benedict, with whom he had been connected for decades. “He was a companion and role model for me as a theologian, priest and bishop. Now he can experience the friendship of Jesus that he proclaimed in abundance”.

The Life of Joseph Ratzinger

Born on April 16, 1927 in Martkl am Inn, Upper Bavaria, near the Austrian border, Joseph Ratzinger has always been a controversial figure. His father was a gendarmerie master, his mother a cook. He spent his childhood and youth mainly in Traunstein. In 1943, Joseph Ratzinger was drafted as an air force helper and then assigned to the Reich Labor Service to build the south-east wall.

As a seminarian at the diocesan boys’ seminary then based in Traunstein, he graduated from high school in 1946. He then completed his studies in theology and philosophy in Freising and Munich. Together with his brother Georg, he was ordained a priest on June 29, 1951 in Freising. In 1959 he was appointed to the University of Bonn and in 1963 to Münster. Pope Paul VI appointed Ratzinger on March 25, 1977 Archbishop of Munich and Freising. Three months later, the only 50-year-old received the cardinal dignity.

Picture gallery: This is how Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI.

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In November 1981, John Paul II appointed Cardinal Ratzinger to be the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and thus the supreme guardian of the faith. He held this office until his election as Pope in 2005. He was the first German-speaking pope in almost 500 years.

Cardinal Ratzinger was considered the favorite for the papacy

Unlike the Polish predecessor John Paul II in 1978 and the Argentine successor Francis in 2013, the outcome of the 2005 conclave was not a big surprise. Cardinal Ratzinger was considered the favorite for the papacy. In the fourth ballot on April 19, 2005, the 115 cardinals elected the long-serving prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to head the Catholic world church.

On the theological legacy of Benedict XVI. belongs to his three-volume book “Jesus von Nazareth”, which he wrote largely during his time as Pope. With many speeches, documents and also on trips he promoted ecumenism and interreligious dialogue – with successes as well as setbacks. His “Regensburg speech” with a quotation from a Byzantine emperor critical of Mohammed triggered riots and violence in the Islamic world.

In addition, he annoyed Jewish interlocutors with his well-intentioned concessions for the Lefebvrian Society of St. Pius, because one of their bishops – the Briton Richard Williamson, who was later expelled from the Society – denied the Holocaust. In both conflicts, Benedict XVI. ultimately contribute to cleansing and calming down.

He also initiated important reforms in the Vatican: He led the Vatican Bank IOR out of the scandal zone and subjected its economic and financial areas to international control mechanisms. Above all, however, he intensified his fight against the abuse scandals in the church, which he had already led as a cardinal, and tried to prevent and help the victims.

Photo gallery: Pope Benedict visited Austria in pouring rain in 2007

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His reform efforts took a toll on his health. Benedict XVI drew groundbreaking conclusions from this: When he saw that his strength was no longer sufficient, he resigned from office – as the first pope in 719 years. Unlike his election 15 years earlier, this move on March 1, 2013 was a sensation.

After the election of his successor Francis, Benedict, who has since lived in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in the Vatican, has become quieter. Only in a few cases was there renewed discussion about him, such as the publication of his biography “Benedikt XVI. – Ein Leben”, in which he clearly distanced himself from marriages between homosexuals.

If the Vatican has its way, Benedict XVI. secured a place in church history as a determined investigator of child sexual abuse. This picture was shaken by the Munich abuse report published last January.

After the Pope Emeritus gave false information in a statement on the report, the criticism became all the sharper. Benedict and his advisers explained what for many was a deliberate misrepresentation for self-protection as an explainable mistake – only to add, in the person of his private secretary Georg Gänswein, that there was once again a campaign against Benedict in Germany. At the end, Ratzinger wrote a letter in which he apologized to the victims of sexual abuse. However, he firmly rejected concrete allegations of cover-up against himself.

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