Pope Benedict XVI

The condition of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI remains stable, the Vatican said Friday, as Catholics prayed for the 95-year-old former pontiff whose health has ...

Oswald in Marktl am Inn, where the former pope was baptized, a photo of Benedict was set up on a tripod next to a baptistery. "He was a great pope," Italian Carmelo Dellisanti told AFP. In his homily, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis said as "priest, theologian, bishop, pope," Benedict "expressed at the same time, the strength and the sweetness of faith." "I don't feel any great sadness or astonishment, but rather gratitude," he said, despite a few tears filling his eyes. Photos from his 2006 trip to the town line the walls. The Rome diocese celebrated a special mass for Benedict at the Basilica of St.

In his homily pronounced on Friday evening in St John's Basilica in the Lateran, the Cardinal Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome expresses the ...

We can only attempt to grasp the idea that such a moment is life in the full sense, a plunging ever anew into the vastness of being, in which we are simply overwhelmed with joy”. With his “tenderness, goodness, humility, meekness, in deep communion with Pope Francis, the Pope Emeritus is a sign of the beautiful face of the Church which reflects the light of Christ's face”, Cardinal De Donatis stressed. Trying to prepare myself for that moment and above all always keeping it in mind. The definitive love that can truly become this ‘second wine’ is more wonderful still, it is better than the first wine”. “We like to think – he said - that our Bishop Emeritus is now held by the hand of St. The first wine is very fine: this is falling in love.

Ukrainian Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych visits Nov. 9, 2022, with retired Pope Benedict XVI in the retired pope's residence, ...

"Even in old age and in sickness, one continues to sustain humanity by the offering of oneself." "At the present moment, his condition is stable." 9, 2022, with retired Pope Benedict XVI in the retired pope's residence, the Mater Ecclesia monastery in the Vatican Gardens.

VATICAN CITY — Two days after Pope Francis told people retired Pope Benedict was “very sick” and in need of prayers, the Vatican said he again had had a ...

The retired pope has looked increasingly frail, but as recently as Dec. “I can confirm that in the last few hours there has been a worsening (of Pope Benedict’s health) due to advancing age,” Bruni had said Dec. The square was filled with pilgrims, tourists and families taking advantage of the holidays to see the Nativity scene and visit St. “The situation at the moment remains under control, constantly followed by doctors.” “He also participated in the celebration of holy Mass in his room yesterday afternoon.” [said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office,](https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2022-12/pope-emeritus-rested-well-overnight-health-situation-stable.html) in a note Dec.

The 95-year-old Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passed away on Saturday at 9:34 AM in his residence at the Vatican's Mater Ecclesiae Monastery.

Further information will be provided as soon as possible. “With sorrow I inform you that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, passed away today at 9:34 AM in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican. The Holy See Press Office announced that the Pope Emeritus died at 9:34 AM on Saturday morning in his residence at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, which the 95-year-old Pope emeritus had chosen as his residence after resigning from the Petrine ministry in 2013.

The German pope, formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was elected in 2005 as a doctrinal conservative, but stunned the world by resigning in 2013 — the first ...

As such, Benedict celebrated the funeral of John Paul II in 2005. Normally, cardinals gather for papal funerals to mourn, but also to participate in the election of a successor. [Operation London Bridge](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/08/world/europe/london-bridge-what-happens-next-queen.html) was set in motion for the hours and days to follow. Their presence in Rome is a “sign that even though a pope has died, the church continues,” Mr. It is likely that Benedict will be buried alongside his 148 predecessors who lie in the crypt beneath St. Gregory XII, the last pope to resign before Benedict, reverted to being a cardinal when he stepped down in 1415. Francis visited him and called him “a wise grandfather in the home,” even as his supporters sought — and failed — to make him an alternative power center. The Vatican said on Saturday that he would be in St. He took the name of a sixth-century monk, Benedict of Nurcia, who had founded monasteries and the Benedictine order, helping spread Christianity in Europe. Benedict, born Joseph Alois Ratzinger, was ordained a priest in 1951, and named archbishop of Munich and Freising in 1977, the same year that he became a cardinal. [John Paul II died in 2005](https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/04/world/europe/obituary-karol-wojtyla-19202005.html), Cardinal Ratzinger was chosen as his successor. He was also criticized as doing little to hold the hierarchy accountable for shielding — and so facilitating — child sexual abuse.

The health of the Pope Emeritus, as Benedict was called after he stepped down, had undergone a "worsening in the last hours" due to his age, the Vatican ...

I give thanks to God for his ministry and leadership." He said: "I am deeply saddened to learn of the death of Pope Benedict. "I remember with particular affection the remarkable Papal Visit to these lands in 2010. "He was through and through a gentleman, through and through a scholar, through and through a pastor, through and through a man of God - close to the Lord and always his humble servant. The health of the Pope Emeritus, as Benedict was called after he stepped down, had undergone a "worsening in the last hours" due to his age, the Vatican said, and doctors were constantly monitoring his condition. We saw his courtesy, his gentleness, the perceptiveness of his mind and the openness of his welcome to everybody that he met."

Born April 16, 1927, in Germany's Bavaria, Joseph Ratzinger was a theologian by training. Following the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005, Ratzinger was ...

O'Connell of America magazine said that in Benedict's final remarks to the cardinals before leaving the Vatican, he said his successor was among them. The [pope emeritus acknowledged](https://www.npr.org/2022/02/09/1079655013/pope-benedict-xvi-apologizes-for-handling-of-sexual-abuse-cases-but-denies-wrong) abuses and errors had taken place when he was Munich archbishop. "Benedict XVI's decision to resign was a very radical interpretation of Vatican II," Faggioli said. The pope added that he learned to be more attentive to the Internet for information. "Because to be pope you are not the theologian-in-chief, you are the pastor-in-chief. He was During that time, one of his most controversial documents was " [Dominus Jesus](http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000806_dominus-iesus_en.html)," which emphasized the primacy of the Catholic Church and branded non-Christian religions as "gravely deficient" — potentially undermining Vatican II achievements toward dialogue between Catholicism and other denominations and religions. In a 1986 document, he called homosexuality an "objective disorder and an Ratzinger was ordained a priest in 1951 and began his career teaching theology. In 1943, he was drafted into the military and served briefly in an anti-aircraft battalion. [interview book](https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/last-testament-9781472944672/)," O'Connell said, referring to Last Testament: In His Own Words. Ratzinger entered a seminary when he was 12.

Benedict, who has died at his Vatican residence, became the first pope to resign for 600 years in 2013.

Like the rest of the Church we will always remember him," Annamaria told the BBC. This situation is unprecedented; there are no protocols to follow for what will happen now. In a statement he said: "I remember with particular affection the remarkable Papal Visit to these lands in 2010. What will happen now? "We came here to pray. The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, said Pope Benedict was "one of the great theologians of the 20th century".

The pontiff was closing what one reporter described as an “extremely banal,” routine ceremony with Vatican cardinals on Feb. 11, 2013, when he uttered, in Latin ...

'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,' a spokesman ...

The Vatican said his body will lie in state from Monday in St. The Vatican has painstakingly Further information will be provided as soon as possible,” the spokesman said in a written statement.

VATICAN CITY: Benedict XVI, who died on Saturday aged 95, was the first pope to resign since the Middle Ages after a papacy beset by Church infighting and ...

"I have had great responsibilities in the Catholic Church. Biographer Peter Seewald told AFP in June 2020 that Benedict was a "down-to-earth person... "The strength of mind and body... He has not matched those statements with deed or action. "He has made lofty statements. In recent years, he appeared in increasingly shaky health. "I can only express to all the victims of sexual abuse my profound shame, my deep sorrow and my heartfelt request for forgiveness," he said in a letter. In January 2022, a damning report commissioned by the Church authorities in Munich accused him of personally failing to stop the abuse of minors by four priests while he was archbishop between 1977 and 1982. He became the first pontiff to apologise for the scandals that emerged around the world, expressing "deep remorse" and meeting with victims in person. Subsequently eclipsed by the dynamism and popularity of his successor Francis, Benedict was quoted a year later as saying that the decision was the result of a mystical experience. As pope emeritus, he spent the rest of his life in study and prayer, and playing his beloved Mozart on the piano in a former convent inside the Vatican. The former pope had had a troubled term in St Peter's, when he often appeared overwhelmed by the challenges facing a Church that was losing influence and followers.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's former spokesperson, Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, paints a portrait of the late Joseph Ratzinger and his extraordinary ...

For 24 years out of the 26 years of his predecessor’s pontificate, Ratzinger was the Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. Beyond pastoral or juridical measures, necessary to confront evil in its manifestations, he felt the terrible and mysterious power of evil and the need to appeal to grace in order not to be crushed by it in despair and to find the path of healing, conversion, penance, purification, which people, the Church and society need. And he tried to face the problems with loyalty, without evading them even if they were dramatic; but faith and the intelligence of faith allowed him always to find a perspective of hope. How could a Pope, with the responsibilities and concerns of the universal Church, which he carried on his shoulders, manage to write a work like that? The fulfillment of a mission centered on the faith in Jesus Christ. His pages and words on eschatology, his encyclical on hope remain a gift to the Church on which his silent prayer set the seal during the long years of his retreat “on the mountain.” Certainly, it was the result of a lifetime of reflection and research. Of the many things that can be remembered about his pontificate, the one that honestly seemed and continues to seem to me the most extraordinary was that in those years he was able to write and complete his trilogy on Jesus. In this regard, I am constantly reminded of what John recounts at the beginning of Revelation: he sees the Son of Man in all his greatness and falls to his feet, as dead. Being a Christian gives me knowledge and, moreover, friendship with the judge of my life and enables me to cross the dark door of death with confidence. Eventually, the time of the encounter with the Lord came. Looking at the hour of judgment, the grace of being a Christian thus becomes clear to me.

Pope Benedict XVI led the Catholic Church at a crucial time and had to confront a growing sexual abuse scandal.

[excommunication of bishops](http://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/letters/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20090310_remissione-scomunica.html) of the order of [St. Pius X bishop, [Richard Williamson](https://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=6806108&page=1), had made [antisemitic](https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101139679) comments and [denied the holocaust](https://abcnews.go.com/International/catholic-bishop-williamson-unrepentent-holocaust-denial/story?id=9717252). However, his official visits to [Beirut](https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-19615616/pope-benedict-xvi-holds-beirut-open-air-mass) and [Istanbul](https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/world/europe/29pope.html) repaired some of the damage. [publicly downplayed](https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/will-ratzingers-past-trump-benedicts-present) the extent and seriousness of the crisis. He also [criticized](http://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/letters/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20100319_church-ireland.html) Irish bishops for their mishandling of the sexual abuse crisis. [Benedict of Nursia](https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/moversandshakers/benedict-of-nursia.html), the founder of Western monasticism, a religious movement that preserved Western culture after the fall of Rome. Most notable was the case of American priest and theologian [Charles Curran](https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/100/charles-curran-case), who was [fired](https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/charles-curran-retire-full-time-teaching) from [The Catholic University of America](https://www.catholic.edu/index.html) because he challenged official Catholic teachings on sexuality. Soon after, he was named a cardinal, a member of the [administrative body](http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/cardinals/index.htm) that elects the pope. [Benedict would later reject](https://onepeterfive.com/benedict-xvi-admits-qualms-of-conscience-about-vatican-ii/) more progressive interpretations of the council as a revolutionary event that was intended to remake the Catholic Church. The [Second Vatican Council](https://www.npr.org/2012/10/10/162573716/why-is-vatican-ii-so-important) attempted to renew the Catholic Church by engaging the modern world more constructively. [deserted the German military](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ratzingers-wwii-experiences/) and was held as a prisoner of war by the Americans; he was released when World War II concluded. 31, 2022 at the age of 95](https://apnews.com/article/pope-benedict-xvi-dead-9d486fd9b12eab1177b9eb8ab7be22f4?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_01), was known for criticizing what he saw as the [modern world’s](https://angelusnews.com/arts-culture/in-new-biography-pope-benedict-says-world-threatened-by-humanism/) rejection of God and Christianity’s [timeless truths](https://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/media/articles/dictatorship-of-relativism-cardinal-ratzinger).

The German pope emeritus, whose birth name was Joseph Ratzinger, had been living a quiet life in a former convent inside the Vatican grounds since his shock ...

In January 2020, he expressed his opposition to allowing priests to marry. 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. His health had been declining for a long time, but the Vatican revealed on Wednesday that his situation had worsened, while his successor Pope Francis called for Catholics worldwide to pray for him.

The first pope to resign in 600 years died on December 31st, aged 95 | News.

But there was no doubt that this was a man for whom relativism was the greatest evil in the modern world, and doctrinal rectitude the surest guard against it. A whirl of excitement erupted in 2010 when he let slip, in the course of a six-hour interview with Peter Seewald, a German journalist, that the use of condoms against aids might be “a step on the way to another, more humane sexuality”. In a lecture at Regensburg in 2006, calling for dialogue between faith and reason, he remarked that Muhammad had brought into the world only “things evil and inhuman”; the press chose not to notice that this was a quotation from 14th-century Byzantium. As a boy in deeply Catholic Bavaria he had been conscripted into the Hitlerjugend and briefly trained for the disintegrating Wehrmacht; after that his life had been the seminary, the professoriat, the faculty of theology at Regensburg, the College of Cardinals. The world seemed to expect them of him, though: an apology to the Jews for the Vatican’s apparent indifference to the Holocaust, and another to the thousands of victims of paedophile priests in Europe and North America. He taught that the essence of Christianity was pure joy, the joy that God’s love is unfailing, like the song of the lark he heard singing from the altar at the moment he was ordained, in June 1951.

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 ...

In January 2020, he expressed his opposition to allowing priests to marry. He denied wrongdoing and the Vatican strongly defended his record in being the first pope to apologize for the scandals, who expressed his own "deep remorse" and met with victims. 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.

German predecessor to Pope Francis became first pontiff to step down as head of Catholic church in 600 years.

He took the title of Pope Emeritus, and pledged to remain “hidden to the world”, devoting himself to private prayer. Towards the end of the war he deserted, and was briefly held as a prisoner of war by American forces. “I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me,” he said. In October 2012, a Vatican court convicted the pope’s personal butler, Paolo Gabriele, of stealing the papers. He later became a major figure in the Vatican and, as Cardinal Ratzinger, served as a right-hand man to his predecessor, Pope John Paul II. He retired leaving a chequered reputation after a papacy that was at times divisive.

Retired Pope Benedict XVI passed away Dec. 31 at 9:34 a.m. in his residence at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican Gardens.

Protests in the Muslim world followed, and Pope Benedict apologized that his words had offended Muslims, distancing himself from the text he had quoted. In the aftermath of the Sept. Another key to building a better world, he said repeatedly, is to respect the right of each person to seek and to worship God. The pope called instead for reading the council through a "hermeneutic of reform" in continuity with Catholic tradition. In a meeting with young people in 2006, the pope said witnessing the brutality of the Nazi regime helped persuade him to become a priest. In the text on abuse, which the retired pope said was motivated by the February 2019 Vatican summit on the crisis, Pope Benedict traced the abuse crisis to a loss of certainty about faith and morals, especially beginning in the late 1960s. After a short stint as a parish priest, the future pope began a teaching career and built a reputation as one of the church's foremost theologians. He remained at the villa south of Rome for two months -- a period that included the conclave that elected Pope Francis as his successor and the first month of the new pope's pontificate. During World War II, he was conscripted into the army, and in the spring of 1945, he deserted his unit and returned home, spending a few months in an Allied prisoner-of-war camp. The retired pope looked in-depth at his papacy and resignation, his relationships with St. In 2007, he widened permission to use the "extraordinary" or pre-Vatican II form of the Mass and, a short time later, extended a hand to the traditionalist Society of St. Besides lifting the excommunications of four of the society's bishops who were ordained illicitly in 1988, he launched a long and intense dialogue with the group.

WASHINGTON - Retired Pope Benedict XVI passed away December 31. Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, ...

Even in retirement, retreating to live out a life in quiet prayer and study, he continued to teach us how to be a true disciple of Christ, while still contributing to his legacy. As a priest, university professor and theologian, archbishop, and cardinal, his voice in deepening an authentic understanding led all of us to a more profound love of truth and the mystery of God. Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, and president of the U.S.

"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," Vatican spokesman ...

In January 2020, he expressed his opposition to allowing priests to marry. His health had been declining for a long time, but the Vatican revealed on Wednesday that his situation had worsened, while his successor Pope Francis called for Catholics worldwide to pray for him. VATICAN CITY: 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.

Pope Francis remembers "dear Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI who left us this morning," recalling him as such a noble and kind man of faith, while ...

The Pope described these indivduals who go against the tide of "consumeristic individualism," selfishness and aggressivness we find in society, as "stars shining in the midst of darkness," since they show how it really is possible to “cultivate kindness” through our daily lives, even in the most difficult situations. Kindness then is essential to this dialogue, he added, and this does not mean just showing "good manners" but living it as a virtue day in and day out, going against the grain of things in order to make our societies more loving and humane. Kindness can also be a "civic virtue," the Pope stressed, and can do wonders in helping improve our societies.

Benedict XVI was praised by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Saturday, saying he will be remembered as the "pope of charity."

Let us commend him to the Lord and pray for his eternal repose," he said. He began his episcopacy with a profoundly theological encyclical entitled Deus Caritas Est (God is Love)," CBCP president Pablo Virgilio David said in a statement. "If Pope Francis is known as the Pope of Mercy and Joy, Pope Benedict will be remembered as the Pope of Charity.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the shy German theologian who tried to reawaken Christianity in a secularized Europe but will forever be remembered as the first ...

His “papal family” consisted of Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, his longtime private secretary who was always by his side, another secretary and consecrated women who tended to the papal apartment. He was the oldest pope elected in 275 years and the first German in nearly 1,000 years. He deserted the German army in April 1945, the waning days of the war. Benedict then largely kept to his word that he would live a life of prayer in retirement, emerging only occasionally from his converted monastery for special events and writing occasional book prefaces and messages. And they harshly criticized Benedict when he removed the excommunication of a traditionalist British bishop who had denied the Holocaust. For them, Benedict remained even in retirement a beacon of nostalgia for the orthodoxy and Latin Mass of their youth — and the pope they much preferred over Francis. The Vatican under Benedict suffered notorious PR gaffes, and sometimes Benedict himself was to blame. Like his predecessor John Paul, Benedict made reaching out to Jews a hallmark of his papacy. No globe-trotting media darling or populist, Benedict was a teacher, theologian and academic to the core: quiet and pensive with a fierce mind. Instead, he was forced to follow the footsteps of the beloved St. It was a path that in many ways was reversed by his successor, Francis, whose mercy-over-morals priorities alienated the traditionalists who had been so indulged by Benedict. His dramatic decision paved the way for the conclave that elected Francis as his successor.

Above all, I thank God Himself, the giver of all good gifts, who has given me life and guided me through all kinds of confusion; who has always picked me up ...

And I would like to thank the Lord for my beautiful home in the Bavarian foothills of the Alps, in which I was able to see the splendour of the Creator Himself shining through time and again. I thank God from the bottom of my heart for the many friends, men and women, whom He has always placed at my side; for the co-workers at all stages of my path; for the teachers and students He has given me. My father's clear-sighted faith taught us brothers and sisters to believe and stood firm as a guide in the midst of all my scientific knowledge; my mother's heartfelt piety and great kindness remain a legacy for which I cannot thank her enough.

Former Pope Benedict XVI has died at the age of 95, almost a decade after he became the first pontiff to resign in six centuries.

Conservatives alarmed by Francis’ progressive moves looked to Benedict as the guardian of tradition. He announced his resignation in Latin, telling cardinals he was too old and frail to lead an institution with more than 1.3 billion members. In 2005, the body of John Paul II lay in state before a funeral Mass at St. —REPORTS BY AFP AND REUTERS Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said in a statement that Benedict passed away at 9:34 a.m. “There were moments of joy and light, but also moments that were not easy …

In the past 10 years, the Catholic Church has been focused on Pope Francis, his rapid internationalizing of church leadership and shift of focus from ...