Retired Pope Benedict XVI
Body of retired Pope Benedict XVI to be placed for open view, Jan. 2 – The Vatican
The Vatican has confirmed that the body of late retired pope, Benedict XVI will be placed ‘will be placed in St Peter’s Basilica from January 2’ for ‘the greeting of the faithful.’
The Vatican which had broken the news of the demise of the ailing pope who willfully resigned his selection as the head of the Catholic Church, in 2013, after leading the movement for less than eight years due to ill health, also disclosed that his successor Pope Francis had visited him at Mater Ecclesiae monastery frequently in the final years of his life.
Benedict XVI famously became the first Pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415.
Benedict XVI was aged 95, and died almost a decade after he stepped down as pope because of ailing health, and spent his final years at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery within the walls of the Vatican.
“With sorrow I inform you that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, passed away today at 9:34 in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican.
“Further information will be provided as soon as possible,” read statement by The Vatican, Saturday.
The Vatican also added that said the body of the Pope Emeritus will be placed in St Peter’s Basilica from January 2 for ‘the greeting of the faithful.’
Other plans for Pope Benedict’s funeral will be announced in the next few hours, the Vatican said.
Meanwhile, Head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, said Pope Benedict was “one of the great theologians of the 20th century”.
In a statement he said: “I remember with particular affection the remarkable Papal Visit to these lands in 2010. We saw his courtesy, his gentleness, the perceptiveness of his mind and the openness of his welcome to everybody that he met.”
“He was through and through a gentleman, through and through a scholar, through and through a pastor, through and through a man of God – close to the Lord and always his humble servant.”
Although the former pontiff had been ill for some time, the Holy See said there had been an aggravation in his condition because of advancing age.
On Wednesday, Pope Francis appealed to his final audience of the year at the Vatican to “pray a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict”, whom he said was very ill.
Born Joseph Ratzinger in Germany, Benedict was 78 when in 2005 he became one of the oldest popes ever elected.
For much of his papacy, the Catholic Church faced allegations, legal claims and official reports into decades of child abuse by priests.
Earlier this year the former Pope acknowledged that errors had been made in the handling of abuse cases while he was archbishop of Munich between 1977 and 1982.
