Benedict XVI (1927- 2022)

• Published date: 08 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

Curtains call for exceptional pontiff and doctrinaire

Former Pope Benedict XVI, who led the Catholic Church for some eight years before stepping down due to failing health, died on New Year eve at 95 years. Benedict was pope from April 19, 2005 until his resignation on February 28, 2013, being the first pontiff to quit in about 600 years since Gregory XII did in 1415. He passed away at 09:34 (08:34 GMT) penultimate Saturday in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery at the Vatican that had been his residence in retirement, and was laid to rest last Thursday. He was the first pope to have his funeral presided over by his successor.

The German-born pope emeritus, whose birth name was Joseph Ratzinger, had been living a quiet life in a former convent inside the Vatican grounds since his shock decision to step down in February 2013. His health had been declining over time, with the Vatican making it known penultimate Wednesday that his situation had worsened and his successor, Pope Francis, calling on Catholics worldwide to pray for him. 'I want to ask you all for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict who sustains the church in his silence. He is very ill,' Francis had said at the end of his last General Audience for 2022 on December 28, adding: 'Let's ask the Lord to comfort him and sustain him in this testimony of love to the church to the very end.' Benedict's death brings to an end an unprecedented situation whereby two pontiffs - Benedict and Francis - co-existed within the walls of the tiny city-state.

In his first public comments following Pope Benedict's death, incumbent Pope Francis called him a gift to the church, describing him as a noble and kind man. The press office of the Holy See said the pope emeritus had in the afternoon on December 28, 2022, received the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery at the end of Holy Mass. At a press briefing in the Vatican on the demise, a spokesman said Benedict specifically asked that everything, including the funeral, be marked by simplicity just as he lived his life. And he had his wish maximally. Following his death, the body of the pope emeritus laid in state from last Monday at Saint Peter's Basilica for Catholic faithful to pay their respects. His funeral mass on Thursday was led by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, after which the body borne in a plain wooden casket was taken to the Vatican Grottos where it was laid to rest.

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