Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI Dies At Age 95 [VIDEO]

December 31, 2022 News, Religion

The New York Times reports:

Pope Benedict XVI, the eminent German theologian and conservative enforcer of Roman Catholic Church doctrine who broke with almost 600 years of tradition by resigning and then living for nearly a decade behind Vatican walls as a retired pope still clad in white robes, died on Saturday at age 95, the Vatican said.

Just as Benedict’s resignation in 2013 shook the Roman Catholic church to its core, his death again put the institution in little-charted territory.

A pope’s death customarily sets in motion a conclave to choose a new leader of the church, but Benedict’s successor, Pope Francis, was named when Benedict stepped down. It was Francis who on Wednesday announced the news of Benedict’s final decline to the world.

CNN reports:



Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger in Marktl am Inn, in southeastern Germany, near the border with Austria, on April 16, 1927. When he was 14, school officials followed Nazi officials’ orders and enrolled him and the rest of his class in the Hitler Youth movement — against his will, Ratzinger wrote in his memoir.

Ratzinger earned the nickname “Cardinal No” for his efforts to crack down on the liberation theology movement, religious pluralism, challenges to traditional teachings on issues such as homosexuality, and calls to ordain women as priests. Over the years, he was at the center of several controversies: he labeled homosexuality “an intrinsic moral evil,” and called the Soviet Union and its communist satellite nations “a shame of our time.”

A damning report published in January 2022 found that he knew about priests who abused children but failed to act when he was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982.

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