Joseph Ratzingerthe pope emeritus Benedict XVIdied in the Vatican. He was 95 years old. This was announced by the director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni
“It is with sorrow that I inform you that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, passed away today at 9.34 am, in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican. Further information will follow as soon as possible”.
The body of Ratzinger, informs the Holy See, from the morning of Monday 2 January he will be in St. Peter’s Basilica to greet the faithful. The “solemn but sober” funeral will be on January 5 at 9.30 and will be officiated by Pope Francis.
The resignation of Benedict XVI, the gesture that brought the Church into modernity
by Ezio Mauro
Joseph Ratzinger, life before the Pontificate
Born in Marktl am Inn, in Bavaria, on April 16, 1927, Ratzinger entered the seminary at the age of 12, in 1939. He was ordained a priest together with his older brother Georg on June 29, 1951, at the age of 24. He was drafted into the army during World War II but was not sent to the front.
With the chair of fundamental theology obtained in 1957 in Munich, he began a brilliant academic career at the age of 30 which saw him teach at the universities of Bonn (1959-1963), Muenster (1963-1966) and Tübingen (1966-1969) and, after the turbulent Sixty-eight, Regensburg (1969-1977), in his native Bavaria. He participated as a “theological expert” of Cardinal Josef Frings, archbishop of Cologne, (1962-1965).
Paul VI appointed him archbishop of Munich and created him cardinal in 1977, John Paul II wanted him at his side in Rome, in 1981, as prefect of the congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The election as Benedict XVI and the resignation
He was elected Pope on April 16, 2005, the 264th successor of Peter, and assumed the name of Benedict XVI.
Almost eight years later, on 11 February 2013, he announced his resignation from the pontificate. The vacant seat began on the following 28 February and on 13 March the Conclave elected Francis. After a few months in the residence of Castel Gandolfo, where he had gone at the time of his resignation and where, on 23 March, he received his successor, the “emeritus” Pope returned to the Vatican, where he has lived ever since in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery. The only departure, the trip of a few days to Bavaria in June 2020 to say goodbye to his elderly brother Georg, who died at the age of 96 on the following July 1st.