Vatican News Pope Benedict in a 2019 photo released by the Vatican.
Pope Benedict XVI is dead, according to a tweet from the Vatican.
The cause of death was not released, but the retired pontiff had been sick recently, CNN reported. “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,” the Vatican wrote on its official Twitter page about the retired Pope in the early morning hours of December 31, 2022.
Over the years, he served as the Archbishop of Munich and Freising in Bavaria, was made a Cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1977, and was president of a Commission for drafting the “Catechism of the Catholic Church.” He was Dean of the College of Cardinals by 2002, Pope Benedict’s Vatican biography says.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols was among those paying tribute, tweeting, “I am deeply saddened to learn of the death of Pope Benedict. He will be remembered as one of the great theologians of the 20th century. I remember with particular affection the remarkable Papal Visit to these lands in 2010.”
According to ABC News, Benedict’s body will lie in state.
Here’s what you need to know:
Pope Francis Recently Revealed That Pope Benedict Was ‘Very Sick’
GettyPope Emeritus Benedict XVI greets cardinals as he leaves the St Peter’s Basilica at the end of the Consistory on February 22, 2014 in Vatican City, Vatican. 19 new cardinals have been created in a ceremony in the Vatican.
On December 28, 2022, Pope Francis revealed that Pope Benedict was “very sick,” and said his health had deteriorated, according to CNN.
CNN reported that Francis made the comments during his general audience at the Vatican. He did not reveal the nature of Benedict’s illness, but the retired pontiff was 95-years-old.
“I want to ask you all for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict who sustains the Church in his silence. He is very sick,” Francis said, according to CNN.
“We ask the Lord to console and sustain him in this witness of love for the Church to the very end.”
A Vatican spokesman later told CNN that “in the last few hours there has been a deterioration due to the advancement of (Benedict’s) age.”
“The situation at the moment remains under control and continually monitored by his doctors,” the spokesman, Matteo Bruni, told CNN, noting that Pope Benedict was visited by Francis at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in Vatican City.
Pope Benedict Resigned in 2013, Citing His Health
GettyFormer archbishop of Boston Cardinal Bernard Law greets Pope Benedict XVI during the weekly audience at Saint Peter’s Square, June 7, 2006 in Vatican City.
Pope Benedict’s health has been an issue for some time. According to Britannica, he stepped down as Pope in 2013, “citing his old age.” In so doing, he became the first Pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415, Britannica reported, adding that Benedict served as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 2005 to 2013.
According to Britannica, Pope Benedict was born Joseph Alois Ratzinger in Germany, the son of a police officer and hotel cook. When he was 6 years old, the Nazis took over the country, but his parents were “hostile to the regime,” partly due to their Catholic faith.
Benedict deserted from the German military in 1945, according to Britannica.
According to his Vatican biography, “Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) was born on 16 April 1927 in Marktl am Inn, Germany. His father, a police officer, came from a traditional family of farmers from Lower Bavaria. He spent his adolescent years in Traunstein, a small town on the Austrian border.”
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