Pope Benedict XVI died – Public display planned in the Vatican

Rome Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. is dead. He died on New Year’s Eve morning at the age of 95 after his health had deteriorated over the past few days. “It is with great pain that I have to announce that Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus, passed away today at 9:34 a.m. in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican,” said Holy See spokesman Matteo Bruni on Saturday. According to a media report, the last words of the late pope were “Jesus, I love you”. This was reported by the Argentine newspaper “La Nación”, citing informed sources on Saturday.

This Thursday at 9.30 a.m. Pope Francis wants to celebrate the funeral service for Papa Emeritus on St. Peter’s Square in Rome. From Monday, Benedict will be publicly laid out in St. Peter’s Basilica. Believers then have the opportunity to say goodbye. The Vatican initially did not give any further details.

The city of Rome expects up to 60,000 people to attend the funeral service. The prefect of the Italian capital, Bruno Frattasi, said on Saturday, according to the Ansa news agency, after a meeting of the security committee. During the celebration in St. Peter’s Square, a no-fly zone will be declared over the Vatican. From Monday to Wednesday, when Benedict’s body is publicly laid out in St. Peter’s Basilica, up to 35,000 people are expected every day, said Frattasi.

On April 19, 2005, Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope as the successor to John Paul II – the first German in about 480 years. Almost eight years later, in a spectacular move, he became the first pope to resign voluntarily in more than 700 years.

He was succeeded by Argentine Jorge Bergoglio as Pope Francis. Since then, Benedict has lived in seclusion in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in the Vatican Gardens, where he now died.

Benedict’s health had deteriorated over Christmas, as Pope Francis announced on Wednesday. On that day Benedict also received the anointing of the sick, as Bruni reported.

In the days that followed, the Vatican described the 95-year-old’s condition as serious but stable. According to media reports, important vital functions in Benedikt had decreased.

Voices on the death of Benedict XVI.

The death of the native of Bavaria caused great sympathy in Germany and also internationally among the approximately 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide. Chancellor Olaf Scholz called him a “special church leader” on Twitter and wrote: “The world is losing a formative figure in the Catholic Church, a combative personality and a clever theologian.”

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wrote: “The unity of Christianity and the dialogue between religions, the coexistence of religion and society were particularly important to him.”

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the Germans as “giants of faith and reason”. President Sergio Mattarella said Italy mourned Benedict, who “will remain unforgettable for the Italian people”.

For the chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, Georg Bätzing, Benedict XVI. “an impressive theologian and experienced pastor”. The Catholics mourned a personality who gave the church hope and direction even in difficult times, the Bishop of Limburg told the German Press Agency.

“Pope Benedict made the voice of the gospel audible – whether convenient or not.” He thinks back to Benedict’s courageous decision to resign in 2013 with great respect

“Benedict XVI. was a great pope who always exercised his pastoral office with boldness and strong faith,” said Munich Archbishop and Cardinal Reinhard Marx. “As a theologian, he shaped and continues to shape the church for a long time.”

Abuse scandal overshadows Benedict’s tenure

During his pontificate, Benedict continued the conservative course of his predecessor. He resisted modernizing the church, which brought him a lot of criticism. His tenure was overshadowed by the abuse scandal that plunged the Catholic Church into a deep crisis.

At the beginning of 2022, his own handling of cases of abuse during his time as Archbishop of Munich and Freising also hit the headlines. An abuse report commissioned by the Archdiocese of Munich accused him of misconduct in four cases. Benedict was Archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1977 to 1982.

Shortly after the publication of the report, Benedikt had to correct a statement about his private secretary Georg Gänswein: Contrary to an initial account, he had taken part in an important meeting in 1980 in which a priest had been spoken about who had been accused of sexual abuse in the diocese of Essen several times had become noticeable to children.

The case was explosive because the priest was reinstated as a pastor in Bavaria. A little later, Benedict apologized to all victims of sexual abuse in a public letter.

Bätzing recalled the letter with which Benedikt reacted to the report. “He asked forgiveness from those affected, but questions remained unanswered,” said Bätzing.

Previously, the retired pope had become quiet. Although he was mentally fit into old age, as his private secretary Georg Gänswein repeatedly emphasized, his physical condition was severe.

His older brother Georg Ratzinger died before him on July 1, 2020 at the age of 96 in Regensburg. Benedict had visited the former church musician at the bedside shortly before.

Strict attitude met with opposition in Europe

Benedict shaped the Catholic Church even before his pontificate. As Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, Cardinal Ratzinger, born on April 16, 1927 in Marktl am Inn in Upper Bavaria, had already written church history for more than 20 years.

Numerous believers, especially in Europe, rejected his strict stance on issues such as birth control, abortion and celibacy. In other parts of the Catholic world church, for example in countries in Africa and Latin America, the conservative line found support.

According to Ratzinger himself, he did not want the papal office, but he accepted it because he suspected God’s will behind it. The initial enthusiasm of the Germans (“We are Pope”), such as at World Youth Day 2005, soon gave way to disillusionment.

Again and again Benedict caused irritation. In 2006, during a speech at the University of Regensburg, he unleashed a wave of outrage in the Muslim world with a medieval quote about Islam’s relationship to violence. The Vatican defended him by saying that the quote that had been extracted had been taken completely out of context.

He also aroused incomprehension with his decision to reverse the excommunication of all four bishops of the right-wing Society of St. Pius – including the Holocaust denier Richard Williamson.

Around the fifth anniversary of his election as Pope in 2010, the abuse of countless children by Catholic clergymen came to light – and how it had been covered up for decades.

With the demand for “zero tolerance” against “sin in the Church” and the request for forgiveness, Benedict positioned himself clearly in this crisis. He clearly campaigned for enlightenment, reappraisal and atonement and met victims of abuse several times.

Benedict published three encyclicals – on Christian love, Christian hope and the “holistic development of man in love and in truth”. He was the first pope to enter a synagogue in Germany and spoke at the former German death camp at Auschwitz and at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. The Nazi ideology had already been strictly rejected in his Bavarian family.

In retrospect, he himself admitted that sometimes he wasn’t close enough to people. In the end, he no longer felt up to the burden of the office. He justified his resignation at the end of February 2013 with his advanced age and ailing health – he said he lacked the strength for the demanding office.

The emeritus promised to remain “hidden from the world”. However, with writings on sensitive topics such as celibacy or abuse, he repeatedly fueled speculation that he did not agree with the course of his successor Francis, at least in part.

Benedikt has not made any public appearances recently. He celebrated his 90th birthday again in 2017 with a delegation from his native Bavaria. After that, he was only able to receive occasional visits to the Mater Ecclesiae monastery. In recent years he has, in his own words, been on a pilgrimage “home”.

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