The Vatican has announced the death of former Pope Benedict, aged 95. 9News
Benedict stunned the world on February 11, 2013, when he announced, in his typical, soft-spoken Latin, that he no longer had the strength to run the 1.2 billion-strong Catholic Church that he had steered for eight years through scandal and indifference.
He added that Benedict, whose health had deteriorated over Christmas, had received the sacrament of the anointing of the sick on Wednesday, after his daily Mass, in the presence of his his longtime secretary and the consecrated women who tend to his household. "From his time as an expert adviser – or peritus – at the Second Vatican Council onwards, there was no question that Joseph Ratzinger was a major figure within the Church around the world," said Archbishop Costelloe, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Most Rev. Anthony Fisher OP remembered the 95-year-old as "a man of towering intellect and deep piety". Archbishop Fisher also reflected on his visits to Rome, spending time with Pope Benedict "reminiscing about his time in Australia"."Saddened to hear of the passing of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, this evening. May he rest in eternal peace," he wrote.
Pope Benedict XVI waves to pilgrims at the end of a papal Mass at the Islinger field in Regensburg, southern Germany, on September 12, 2006. Pope Benedict XVI celebrates a special mass for the sick in front of the Basilica of the Rosary in Lourdes, France, on September 15, 2008. Pope Benedict XVI, centre, talks to an Australian Aborigine while waving to pilgrims aboard a harbor cruise in Sydney, Australia, on July 17, 2008.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.
Pope Benedict XVI walks through the gate of the former Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz, with sign above reading in German "Work will set you free", in Oswiecim, Poland, on May 28, 2006. A subsequent comment after the massacre of Christians in Egypt led the Al Azhar center in Cairo, the seat of Sunni Muslim learning, to suspend ties with the Vatican, which were only restored under Francis.
Pope Benedict XVI is greeted by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the U.N. headquarters on April 18, 2008, during a visit to New York. In fact, it was he who, before becoming pope, took the then-revolutionary decision in 2001 to assume responsibility for processing those cases after he realized bishops around the world weren't punishing abusers but were just moving them from parish to parish where they could rape again.
In retirement, Benedict was faulted by an independent report for his handling of four priests while he was bishop of Munich; he denied any personal wrongdoing but apologized for any "grievous faults."In October 2012, Benedict's former butler, Paolo Gabriele, was convicted of aggravated theft after Vatican police found a huge stash of papal documents in his apartment.
He made his last public appearances in February 2013 and then boarded a helicopter to the papal summer retreat at Castel Gandolfo, to sit out the conclave in private. Benedict then largely kept to his word that he would live a life of prayer in retirement, emerging only occasionally from his converted monastery for special events and writing occasional book prefaces and messages.
Benedict was often misunderstood: Nicknamed "God's Rottweiler" by the unsympathetic media, he was actually a very sweet and fiercely smart academic who devoted his life to serving the church he loved.
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