Days After: Pope Benedict dead at 95

Former pope Benedict XVI, who became the first pontiff to resign in some 600 years, has died at the age of 95.

Benedict was previously replaced by Pope Francis, as head of the Catholic Church. Benedict’s body will be be buried in St Peter’s Basilica.

“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 spokesperson said in announcing Benedict’s death. “As of Monday morning, 2 January 2023, the body of the Pope Emeritus will be in Saint Peter’s Basilica so the faithful can bid farewell.”

His death came only a day after news broke out that Benedict’s health was deteriorating. It was apparently “worsening in the last hours.”

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, praises Benedict as “one of the great theologians of the 20th century,” and added: “I remember with particular affection the remarkable papal visit to these lands in 2010. We saw his courtesy, his gentleness, the perceptiveness of his mind and the openness of his welcome to everybody that he met.”

“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.”