Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI dies at 95

• Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died on Saturday.
• He will be remembered as the first pontiff to resign in 600 years.
• He tried to revive Christianity in a secularized Europe.

Pope emeritus Benedict XVI died on Saturday. The timid German theologian who tried to revive Christianity in a secularized Europe will be remembered as the first pontiff to step down in 600 years. He was 95 years old, according to the AP and infobae.

Benedict XVI surprised the world on February 11, 2013 when he announced, in his typical Latin and in a soft tone, that he no longer had the strength to continue leading a Catholic Church with 1.2 billion faithful that he had commanded for eight years amid scandals and indifference.

BOTH POPES LIVED TOGETHER

His dramatic decision gave way to the conclave that chose Pope Francis as his successor. The two pontiffs have lived together in the Vatican gardens ever since, in an unprecedented agreement that laid the foundations for future popes emeritus to do the same, with great cordiality.

“It is with regret that I announce that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passed away today at 9:34 a.m. in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery of the Vatican. As soon as possible, more information will be provided,» Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni explained in a statement on Saturday morning.

WHEN CAN THE FAITHFUL SAY GOODBYE?

The faithful will be able to pay their respects to his mortal remains starting Monday in St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican said. Former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had never wanted to be pope, and at 78 he planned to spend his last years writing in the «peace and quiet» of his native Bavaria.

Instead, he was forced to take the place of beloved Saint John Paul II in 2005 and lead the institution amid a clerical sexual abuse scandal, followed by another when his own butler stole his personal documents and handed them over to a journalist. As he once recounted, when he was elected pope he felt as if he had been put through the «guillotine». Filed Under: Pope Benedict XVI dies

POPE BENEDICT XVI HAD A GREAT CHALLENGE

Despite this, he approached the task with the firm intention of rekindling faith in a world that, as he often lamented, seemed to believe it could do without God. “In large parts of the world today there is a strange forgetfulness of God,” he told the million young people who gathered in a field on his first foreign trip as pope, to World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany, in 2005. «It seems like everything is the same even without him.»

With some key, often contentious decisions, he sought to remind Europe of its Christian heritage. And he led the Church down a traditional, conservative path that often alienated progressives. He relaxed restrictions on celebrating the Old Latin Mass and cracked down on American nuns, insisting that the Church remain faithful to her doctrine and traditions in the face of a changing world. It was a path reversed in many ways by his successor Francis, who by prioritizing mercy over morality drove away traditionalists who had been lenient with Benedict. Filed Under: Pope Benedict XVI dies

A LEGACY

But the legacy of Benedict XVI was irreversibly marked by the worldwide outbreak of the sexual abuse scandal in 2010, despite the fact that in his time as cardinal he was responsible for the Vatican changing its approach on the matter. According to documents, despite knowing about the problem, the pope ignored it for decades, even disavowing bishops who tried to do the right thing.

Benedict knew the magnitude of the situation firsthand since, in his former position, in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which he had directed since 1982, he was responsible for managing cases of abuse. In fact, it was he who, in 2001, made the revolutionary decision to assume responsibility for processing these cases after realizing that bishops from all over the world did not punish the aggressors, but limited themselves to transferring them to another parish, where they could abuse again. Filed Under: Pope Benedict XVI dies