The Vatican has said that Pope Benedict XVI, who led the Catholic Church from 2005 until his retirement in 2013, passed away at the age of 95.
A statement from Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said: "With sorrow, I inform you that 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."
Benedict passed away shortly after Pope Francis stated that he was "extremely unwell" during his weekly audience on December 28.
Benedict's death brings to an end an unparalleled period in modern history in which two popes coexisted, causing tensions between different groups inside the Vatican. It clears the way for his successor, Pope Francis, to contemplate whether to follow Benedict's lead and retire at some time, which would have been impossible if the result had been three popes.
Benedict, born in Germany in 1927 as Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, was a profoundly conservative pontiff whose term was clouded by church sex abuse scandals. He stepped down with a tainted reputation following a contentious pontificate.
According to the findings of a German inquiry announced in January 2022, Benedict neglected to act against four priests suspected of child sexual abuse when archbishop of Munich.
He grew up in rural Bavaria, the son of a police officer, and at the age of 14 joined the Hitler Youth, a prerequisite, and served in the German army during WWII. He deserted at the conclusion of the war and was briefly detained as a prisoner of war by American forces.
Later, as Cardinal Ratzinger, he became a key player in the Vatican and served as Pope John Paul II's right-hand man. He commanded the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a Vatican agency historically known as the Inquisition, for 24 years, a post that earned him the nickname "God's Rottweiler".
During his reign, charges of clergy sexual abuse and cover-up emerged. His detractors said he failed to recognize the seriousness of the atrocities and the scope of the situation, which peaked several years after his election as Pope in April 2005.
In addition to the stream of complaints, lawsuits, and official reports about sexual assault and the priests' cooperation in covering it up, the Vatican was shocked by the loss of private papers, many of which eventually emerged in an exposé of suspected corruption. A Vatican court convicted the pope's personal butler, Paolo Gabriele, of stealing the papers in October 2012. He told the tribunal he had been battling against "evil and corruption".
Benedict was a religious conservative who had firm views on homosexuality and contraception. He had been outspoken in his opposition to liberation theology, a radical movement that emerged in South America in the 1960s and encouraged clerical social activity among the poor and marginalized.
His unexpected retirement in February 2013, at the age of 85, as the first pope to do so since the Middle Ages, stunned the church. He stated at the time that he lacked the strength to continue leading the world's estimated 1.2 billion Catholics. "I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me," he said.
He assumed the title of Pope Emeritus and vowed to stay "hidden to the world," dedicating himself to private prayer. He retired to a Vatican City monastery, where he read, wrote letters and essays, entertained guests, and played the piano.
However, the former Pope remained a major conservative influence and a focal point for those opposed to Francis' efforts to reform the church and reorient it to serve the poor. He expressed his opinions through letters, essays, and interviews on several occasions.
In April 2019, two months after Francis hosted a breakthrough Vatican meeting on sexual abuse, Benedict wrote a 6,000-word statement claiming that abuse was the result of a 1960s sexual liberation culture.
Benedict strongly supported clerical celibacy in January 2020, as Francis considered allowing married men to become priests in certain situations. "I cannot keep silent," he wrote in a book titled From the Depths of Our Hearts: Priesthood, Celibacy, and the Crisis of the Catholic Church, claiming that priestly celibacy maintained the church's mystery.
In the ensuing uproar, Benedict requested that his name be deleted from the list of co-authors alongside Cardinal Robert Sarah, a major conservative predicted to follow Francis.
The issue, which erupted shortly before the Netflix premiere of Two Popes, a film on Benedict and Francis' ostensibly close relationship, highlighted tensions between different Vatican groups.