Former Pope Benedict XVI breathes his last at 95

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, former head of the Catholic Church, passed away at the age of 95 on Saturday. He died in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican, a spokesman for the Holy See said. "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," the spokesman said in a written statement.

On Monday morning, 2 January 2023, the body of the Pope Emeritus will be in Saint Peter's Basilica so the faithful can bid farewell.

Pope Francis went to see Benedict at his home in the Vatican

The news of his death comes three days after current pontiff Pope Francis urged people to pray for his predecessor Benedict, who was "very sick.” He went to see Benedict at his home in the Vatican where he has lived since retiring in 2013, sparking fears that he was near death.

“I’d like to ask all of you for a special prayer for Emeritus Pope Benedict, who, in silence, is sustaining the church. I remind you that he is very sick. Let’s ask the Lord to comfort him and sustain him in this testimony of love to the church to the very end,’’ Pope Francis said on December 28.

Earlier on Thursday, the Associated Press reported that the former pope’s condition had gotten worse in a matter of hours as doctors were monitoring his health.

This year in April, when Pope Emeritus Benedict turned 95 years old, his secretary Archbishop Georg Gaenswein said that the former pontiff was “naturally... physically relatively weak and fragile, but rather lucid.”

He served as the head of the Vatican Church between April 2005 and February 2013, when he resigned from the role, thus becoming the first Pope to give his resignation since the year 1415. He attributed his decision to his health issues that were caused by old age.

Earlier this year, the former Pope admitted that he had given an inaccurate and misleading testimony to German investigators who were looking into a case of child abuse by the Vatican’s Catholic clergy. Benedict ended up apologizing with "deep remorse” for the controversies surrounding sexual abuse that encircled the church, but clarified that he did not take part in any such wrongful acts.