Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI Dies at Age 95

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the influential former leader of the Roman Catholic Church who made history when he chose to retire in 2013, died Saturday at age 95.

Summary

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the influential former leader of the Roman Catholic Church who made history when he chose to retire in 2013, died Saturday at age 95.

• Pope Benedict was born Joseph Ratzinger on April 16, 1927, in Germany. He was ordained a priest in 1951 and served as an influential theologian in the Vatican for a quarter century before his election to the papacy in 2005 following the death of Pope John Paul II.
• Benedict was a “reluctant pope,” according to the Associated Press, who sought to rekindle Christianity in a secularizing world during his eight years as pontiff before he became the first pope to resign in over 600 years due to health concerns.
• “Our Bavarian Pope,” as the premier of Benedict’s home state called him, was the first German to serve as pontiff in 1,000 years. Pope Francis will preside over a quiet funeral for his predecessor on Thursday, and only Italy and Germany have been asked to send formal delegations.
• Pope Francis led tributes to his “noble,” “kind,” and “gifted” predecessor. King Charles III, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Schultz, and U.S. President Joe Biden, the second Catholic president, all released messages of condolence for Benedict.

• CNN looked back at the prominent people who died in 2022. In addition to Pope Benedict XVI and Barbara Walters, who passed away within a day of each other, Pele, Franco Harris, Kirstie Alley, Queen Elizabeth II, Mikhail Gorbachev, Shinzo Abe, and Ivana Trump all passed away this year.
• The New York Times reported on the extraordinary circumstances of a sitting pope presiding over the funeral of another pope and the final testament of Benedict XVI, which “called on the faithful to ‘Stay steady in the faith.’”
• The Washington Post argued the loss of Benedict could reshape the Catholic Church given his status as an influential so-called traditionalist. The Post also noted his death ends the unusual 10-year period when the Vatican had two men in white, the pope and his predecessor.

• National Review’s Michael Brendan Dougherty believes future generations will remember Pope Benedict XVI as “the most consequential churchman and theologian of this and several preceding eras.” Dougherty praised Benedict’s efforts to fight the sexual abuse crisis within the Church and for restoring the Latin Mass.
• Fox News covered the criticism prominent media organizations like NBC, CBS, ABC, Newsweek, and the Washington Post leveled at Benedict in the hours after his passing. One progressive media personality even tweeted, “Good riddance.”
• The Wall Street Journal wrote Benedict’s papacy was defined by the promotion of the Christian faith grounded in human reason in the face of a “dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.”

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© Dominic Moore, 2022