News obtained from the Catholic News Agency reveals the death of the former Catholic Pontiff Tthat he Vatican confirmed that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, a notable theologian of the 20th century and the first pope to step down from office in nearly 600 years, passed away at the age of 95.
Rome received word of his passing on December 31. The Vatican announced that his burial Mass would take place in St. Peter's Square on January 5, 2023.
"With regret I inform you that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, passed away today at 9:34 in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican," said Matteo Bruni, head of the Vatican press office.
Beginning on January 2, 2023, Benedict XVI's body will lay in state at St. Peter's Basilica.
In a news briefing on December 31, Bruni stated Pope Benedict had received the sacrament of anointing of the sick on December 28.
Pope Francis will preside over the solemn funeral Mass, which will start at 9:30 a.m. on January 5, 2023, in St. Peter's Square. After the ceremony, Benedict XVI will be interred in the vault of the Vatican.
The burial will be conducted under the sign of simplicity, as requested by the pope emeritus, Bruni stated.
Here is a link to (929) LIVE from St. Peter's Square | Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died at 95 | EWTN Special Coverage - YouTube EWTN's live coverage of Benedict's passing from Rome.
Police in Rome have cleared St. Peter's Square as of 2:00 p.m. for security inspections. Pope Francis will lead First Vespers in the Vatican basilica at 5 p.m. for the vigil of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.
He was elected to the papacy in April 2005, adopting the name Benedict XVI, following decades of devotion to the Catholic Church as a theologian, cardinal, prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and one of St. John Paul II's closest associates.
Police in Rome have cleared St. Peter's Square as of 2:00 p.m. for security inspections. Pope Francis will lead First Vespers in the Vatican basilica at 5 p.m. for the vigil of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.
Real name at birth is Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, after decades of service to the Catholic Church as a theologian, cardinal, prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and one of St. John Paul II's closest collaborators, he was elected to the papacy in April 2005 and assumed the name Benedict XVI. He succeeded St. John Paul II as pope.
The 85-year-old Benedict, the first pope to do so in 600 years, surprised the world on February 11 by announcing his resignation in Latin. He claimed that he was unfit to perform the duties of his office because of his elderly age and lack of strength.
One of the most prominent theologians in the Catholic Church, Benedict's pontificate was distinguished by a deep comprehension of the difficulties facing the Church in the face of rising ideological aggression, not least from a more and more secular Western mindset, both inside and outside the Church. In a homily delivered immediately before the conclave that elected him pope in 2005, he notably issued a warning against the "dictatorship of relativism."
The future pope was born on April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn, a small village in Bavaria. He was raised in a part of Germany that has long been renowned as a center of Marian devotion and piety. He was Joseph and Maria Ratzinger's third and youngest child.
The development of the Nazi party, a government he called "sinister" and that "banished God and consequently grew resistant to anything real and good," overshadowed his upbringing in the nearby Bavarian town of Traunstein.
Ratzinger and his older brother, Georg, began their studies for the priesthood in Freising and Munich after a brief two-month forced conscription for the German army at the end of World War II.
Ratzinger completed his doctoral theological studies, was ordained a priest with his brother on June 29, 1951, and went on to work as a university professor and vice president at the esteemed University of Regensburg in Bavaria. He received an invitation to participate in the Second Vatican Council as an expert, or peritus, thanks to Cardinal Joseph Frings, the archbishop of Cologne. He quickly made a name for himself as a leading theologian.
He was appointed archbishop of Munich and Freising by Pope Paul VI in 1977, and later that year, he received the red hat of a cardinal.
Ratzinger was appointed prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the division of the Vatican tasked with advancing and defending the doctrines of the Catholic faith, by Pope John Paul II only four years later, in 1981. He served in that capacity until John Paul II's passing in 2005.
The pope emeritus committed himself to a life of penance and prayer after leaving office in 2013 and moved into the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, a modest monastery constructed inside the Vatican City walls in 1994.
This story is still developing, as reported by Catholic News Agency
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