Benedict's papacy began April 19, 2005, three weeks after the death of Pope John Paul II, and ended in 2013 with his being the first pope since 1415 to resign.
By Scott Ross and AP ••
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The former Pope Benedict XVI, born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, has died at the age of 95.
The former Pope Benedict XVI, born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, whose resignation as the head of the Catholic Church rocked the world, has died. He was 95, the Vatican informed Saturday morning.
A statement from Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni on Saturday morning said that: “With pain I inform that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died today at 9:34 in the Mater Ecclesia Monastery in the Vatican. Further information will be released as soon as possible.”
The Vatican said Benedict’s remains would be on public display in St. Peter’s Basilica starting Monday for the faithful to pay their final respects. His funeral will be celebrated on Thursday, Jan. 5th in St. Peter's Square.
Benedict's papacy began April 19, 2005, three weeks after the death of Pope John Paul II, and ended with his being the first pope since Pope Gregory XII in 1415 to resign. His eight years as pope will best be remembered for the sex abuse scandal that finally came to light after more than 20 years of denial by church leaders, including Benedict himself.
As head of the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1981 until he became pope in 2005, Ratzinger was in charge of all investigations into allegations of sexually abusive priests. Though he made many changes to canon law in an effort to crack down on abusers, he was widely criticized for his inaction and obstruction.
“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.
In some cases he waited years before investigating allegations or simply moved abusive priests from one city to another, and defended the church's right to keep evidence confidential for 10 years after alleged victims reached adulthood.
But in a papal first, Benedict in 2010 met with victims and wrote an eight-page letter in which he apologized to Irish Catholics.
"You have suffered grievously, and I am truly sorry," the pope wrote. "Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated."
Ratzinger was born and baptized on Holy Saturday, April 16, 1927, and as a boy lived in Traunstein, Germany, a small village near the Austrian border. A teenager at the outset of WWII, in 1941 Ratzinger was automatically enrolled into the Hitler Youth, per the policy of his school.
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Pope Benedict XVI, now known as the emeritus pope, waves to a faithful crowd from a balcony upon arrival in Castel Gandolfo on his last day of papacy. He is the first pope since 1415 to abdicate the papal throne. Click to see more pictures from his lifetime.
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Pope Francis, right, greets Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at the end of a meeting with elderly faithful in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sept. 28, 2014.
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In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis is flanked by Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Mons. Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, during the unveiling of a bronze bust of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, at the Vatican, Monday, Oct. 27, 2014. Pope Francis has heaped praise on retired Pope Benedict XVI, hailing his person and papacy amid continuing fallout from a meeting of bishops that exposed divisions between progressive Catholics backing Francis' call for a more merciful church and conservatives nostalgic for Benedict's emphasis on doctrine. Francis unveiled a bronze bust of Benedict on Monday in the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
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Pope Francis, right, embraces his predecessor Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, during a ceremony in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 27, 2014. Pope Francis has declared his two predecessors John XXIII and John Paul II saints in an unprecedented canonization ceremony made even more historic by the presence of retired Pope Benedict XVI.
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Newly-elected Cardinal Pietro Parolin, right, is greeted by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI after he received the red three-cornered biretta hat by Pope Francis during a consistory inside the St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014. Pope Francis is putting a personal imprint on the group of men who will choose his successor, tapping like-minded cardinals from some of the world's smallest, most remote and poverty-wracked nations to help him run the Catholic Church.
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Pope Benedict XVI spoke to his cardinals during a farewell ceremony in the Clementine Hall of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace on his last day.
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During a February 11 meeting of the Vatican cardinals, Pope Benedict XVI read a document announcing his resignation. The decision set the stage for a conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March.
Pope Benedict XVI was elected on April 19, 2005. Here, he greets the crowd from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica moments after being elected at the Vatican.
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Pope Benedict XVI entered the digital age by joining Twitter earlier this year. With less than 140 character, his first tweet blessed the world reading: "Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart."
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President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama met with Pope Benedict XVI in mid July 2009. President Obama sat down with the pontiff at the Vatican for a meeting of frank but constructive talks between two men who agree on helping the poor but disagree on abortion and stem cell research.
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Pope Benedict XVI is pictured here visiting the Rome Gemelli hospital in January 2011. Pope Benedict arrived with stuffed animals, books and candy to mark the Epiphany, when Catholics believe the three kings brought gifts to the newborn Jesus.
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President Bush met with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in 2008, presenting the Pope with a framed photograph from their meeting at the White House. The pontiff gave President Bush a rare peek at the Vatican Gardens, a spot where popes pray privately and only special guests are allowed to stroll.
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The pontiff sent greetings to China before the 2008 Olympics. Announcing his intention to follow the Games, he hoped Beijing would offer "a pledge of brotherhood and peace among people." Throughout his papacy, Benedict made the improvement of relations with Beijing a priority
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Pope Benedict XVI lights one of the world's largest electronic Christmas trees in the central Italian town of Gubbio without leaving Vatican City using a tablet device in 2011.
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In March 2012, Pope Benedict XVI and Cuban President Raul Castro met at Havana's Consejos de Estado. Fourteen years after Pope John Paul II visited Cuba, Pope Benedict made his first trip to the communist country.
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Pope Benedict XVI held Mass at the Revolution Square in Havana, Cuba on the last day of his visit to the island.
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Pope Benedict XVI met with former Cuban President Fidel Castro at Havana, Cuba's Vatican embassy in March 2012.
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Pope Benedict XVI greeted crowds upon arriving at Krakow's Blonia park for a meeting with the youth in 2006. Pope Benedict XVI was in Poland on a four-day visit that took him to Warsaw, Krakow, Czestochow, and Wadowice--Pope John Paul II's birth town.
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Pope Benedict XVI met with the German President Joachim Gauck during a private audience in the library of the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City, Vatican.
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President Mahmoud Abbas met with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican in December 2012 in Rome. Abbas was quoted saying he was "very worried" by the killing of Palestinians in the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus, Syria.
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U.S. actor Jon Voight is received by Pope Benedict XVI in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican in 2005, at the end of the presentation of the movie "Pope John Paul II" on the life of the late pontiff. Jon Voight played the role of Pope John Paul II.
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Pope Benedict XVI kisses a child during his visit to Angola, in March 2009. Pope Benedict XVI appealed to the Catholics of Angola on Saturday to reach out to and convert believers.
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Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger prays next to Mother Teresa at the 85th German Catholics Days in Freiburg between 13 and 17 September 1978.
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Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger speaks with Andreas Stadtler, Captain of the Mountain Riflemen's Company. Ratzinger took his official leave of The Archbishopric Munich And Freising, during a ceremony in 1982.
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Theology professor Joseph Ratzinger is shown here at the Higher School of Philosphy and Theology in Freising in his private quarters in 1959. Ratzinger went on to teach at the University of Bonn from 1959- 1963.
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Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI on April 19, 2005. Here, Ratzinger is pictured with his family in 1938. He is pictured here with father Josef, sister Maria, mother Maria and brothers Georg and Joseph.
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Joseph Ratzinger celebrates Mass at a mountain site near the Bavarian town of Ruhpolding, Germany in the summer of 1952.
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Joseph Ratzinger received his doctorate in theology from the University of Munich in 1953 with a thesis entitled "People and House of God in St Augustine's Doctrine of the Church." Ratzinger is pictured here giving a theology lecture in Freising during the summer semester in 1955.
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Joseph Ratzinger was ordained into priesthood by the Cardinal Faulhaber of Munich. Here he is shown with his family on the day of his two brothers' ordination.
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Joseph Ratzinger is seen here in 1943 in uniform as a German Air Force assistant during World War II.
Ratzinger would spend two years as a member of the Nazi youth group before being drafted and serving with an anti-aircraft unit that guarded a BMW plant outside Munich. He would eventually desert the army and return home, before being captured by American troops and held for several months in a POW camp.
Looking back on WWII, Ratzinger cited the Roman Catholic Church as "a citadel of truth and righteousness against the realm of atheism and deceit." His experience with the Nazis, who forbade Catholic worship, only served to push him closer to his faith. In 1946 he began studying philosophy at the University of Munich, eventually receiving ordination in 1951.
Throughout the '50s and '60s, Ratzinger rose through the ranks of the church, serving as an advisor to the Archbishop of Cologne. Pope Paul VI later named him Archbishop of Munich and Freising in 1977, before promoting him to Cardinal later that same year.
Ratzinger would serve as a member of the conclaves that elected both Pope John Paul I and II, the latter naming him Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
It was as head of the CDF, whose mission is "to promote and safeguard the doctrine on faith and morals in the whole Catholic world," that he earned the nickname "God's Rottweiler," for his ferocious defense of traditional church values.
As pope, Benedict made great inroads in modernizing the Catholic Church by talking about climate change and installing solar panels at the Vatican, as well as launching papal Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts.
But he also aroused criticism for remaining steadfastly opposed to homosexuality, the ordination of female priests and allowing priests to wed.
In February 2013, the day after Benedict told the world he would be stepping down, the Vatican revealed that he had had a pacemaker implanted a decade ago, but Greg Burke, the Vatican’s senior communications adviser, said it didn’t play a part in his decision.
“You don’t resign because you have a pacemaker or because you have a new battery for a pacemaker,” Mr. Burke said.
In announcing his resignation from the Vatican, the 85-year-old pope told a church council, "I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry."
Benedict's reign officially ended at 8 p.m. Rome time on Feb. 28, 2013.
