Vatican City: Former Pope Benedict passed away on Saturday, ending an extraordinary period in which two men wearing white lived in the Vatican. He was 95.
Benedict breathed his last in a former monastery where he had lived since his shocked resignation in 2013.
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He was the first pontiff in 600 years to resign and a standard bearer for conservatives who yearned for a more traditional Church.
In his first comment in public after the death, Pope Francis said the Church and the world had lost a noble, gentle person.
Bells tolled in Rome as news of his death, which followed a rapid decline in his health over Christmas, spread to the faithful on an unusually warm winter’s day. Many went to pray in St. Peter’s Square on hearing the news.
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“Now we will only have one pope. I must say that Pope Ratzinger was a charismatic pope, humble but above all a great theologian,” said French tourist Emilie Gaillard, using Benedict’s family name.
The Vatican said his body would lie in state from Monday in St. Peter’s Basilica and that Pope Francis will preside at his funeral on Thursday morning in the same square where Benedict, who was then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, said the funeral Mass for his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, in 2005.
“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,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said. “Following the desire of the Pope Emeritus, the funeral will take place in a sign of simplicity,” Bruni said, adding that the service would be “solemn and sober”.