Benedict XVI, first Pope to resign in 600 yrs, dies

New Delhi, December 31

Former Pope Benedict XVI, born as Joseph Ratzinger in Germany, passed away on Saturday. He was 95.

“With sorrow I inform you that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, passed away today in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican,” said a statement from the spokesman for the Holy See.

In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, prominent members of the Catholic community and the entire spectrum of the political leadership in Kerala mourned his demise.

The PM recalled that Benedict XVI had devoted his entire life to the Church and said he would be remembered for his rich service to society. Kerala’s nun Sister Alphonsa was canonised by Pope Benedict XVI as Saint Alphonsa in 2008.

Lauded as the first modern-day Pope to resign, his decision was not guided solely by advancing age and failing health. His extremely conservative views did not sit well with the riled Muslim and Jewish communities. His former butler’s leak of inside documents exposing corruption and faction fights within the Vatican also combined to make him the first Pope in 600 years to resign in 2013 after an eight-year stint as the Pope.

He was known as the “God’s Rottweiler” as his conservative views often clashed with those of the socialist- and Marxist-oriented priests, mostly from Latin America and labelled as “Liberation Theologists”.

Ratzinger started out from the grassroots and became the Archbishop of Munich in 1977. Five years later, he was posted to the headquarters in the Vatican. In 2005, he was elected the Pope, succeeding John Paul II, who had been the Pope for 27 years.

Was hero to catholic conservatives

• Former Pope Benedict XVI’s extremely conservative views did not sit well with the riled Muslim and Jewish communities
• He was known as the ‘God’s Rottweiler’ as his conservative views often clashed with those of Marxist-oriented priests