BREAKING: The Vatican announced Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passed away Saturday morning at 9:34 a.m. He was 95 years old.
but will forever be remembered as the first pontiff in 600 years to resign from the job, died Saturday. He was 95.
A portrait of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is seen near the altar at the Cathedral of Regensburg, southern Germany on December 29, 2022, during a church service. - Former pope Benedict XVI remains in a serious but stable condition, Italian media reportThe Vatican said Benedict’s remains would be on public display in St. Peter’s Basilica starting Monday for the faithful to pay their final respects.
Pope emeritus Benedict XVI attends a papal mass for elderly people at St Peter's square on September 28, 2014 at the Vatican. It was Benedict’s devotion to history and tradition that endeared him to members of the traditionalist wing of the Catholic Church. 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.
"It’s very clear Benedict is a true friend of the Jewish people," said Rabbi David Rosen, who heads the interreligious relations office for the American Jewish Committee, at the time of Benedict’s retirement. The Vatican under Benedict suffered notorious PR gaffes, and sometimes Benedict himself was to blame. He enraged the United Nations and several European governments in 2009 when, en route to Africa, he told reporters that the AIDS problem couldn’t be resolved by distributing condoms.
Benedict had firsthand knowledge of the scope of the problem, since his old office — the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which he had headed since 1982 — was responsible for dealing with abuse cases. Once the "Vatileaks" scandal was resolved, including with a papal pardon of Gabriele, Benedict felt free to take the extraordinary decision that he had hinted at previously: He announced that he would resign rather than die in office as all his predecessors had done for almost six centuries.
Despite his very different style and priorities, Francis frequently said that having Benedict in the Vatican was like having a "wise grandfather" living at home.
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