The Catholic Church announced today (Saturday) the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who passed away at the age of 95. Benedict XVI was elected to the Holy See in 2005 and became the 265th Pope. In 2013 he announced his retirement from the position for health reasons. He was the first pope to resign voluntarily in about 600 years. His body will lie in state in St. Peter’s Basilica starting January 2, so that people can say goodbye to him.
A few days ago there was a deterioration in the health condition of the former Pope. The current Pope Francis surprised those present in the sermon he delivered and said: “I want to ask you to pray for the retiring Pope Benedict. He is very ill. I ask that you support him.”
Josef Alois Ratzinger was born on April 16, 1927 in Marktal am Inn, Germany. His father was a policeman from a traditional Bavarian peasant family. Ratzinger spent his youth in the small town of Traunstein near the border with Austria, where he became acquainted with the cultural and human aspects of Christianity. Ratzinger’s father opposed the Nazi regime, and Ratzinger himself was forced to join the Hitler Youth movement at the age of 14, but testified that he avoided participating in its activities. Towards the end of the war, he was recruited into the Wehrmacht, trained as an anti-aircraft and infantry fighter, but deserted and did not participate in battles. At the end of the war he spent several months in a detention camp for Wehrmacht soldiers.
Between the years 1946-1951 he studied philosophy and theology at the University of Munich and in 1951 he was ordained a priest. Ratzinger continued an academic career, graduated with a doctorate in theology and was appointed professor at the universities of Freising, Bonn, Münster and Tübingen. As an expert in Catholic theology and dogma, he was invited to participate as an advisor in the councils and assemblies of the Vatican and in 1977 was appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising.
The appointment to archbishop was followed by appointment to chasmin, the highest rank below the pope in the administrative hierarchy in the church. In the 1980s, he was appointed president of the church’s Bible committee and head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In 2002, he was appointed dean of the Hashemite assembly in the church.
At the death of the popular Pope John Paul II, the name of Hashman Ratzinger was mentioned as a possible candidate for the throne of Peter. The mood in the church demanded the election of an Italian pope after the tenure of a Polish pope or, unfortunately, a pope coming from a developing country. As dean of the Hashemite assembly, he led the conclave process – the election of the new pope, and on the evening of April 19, after two days of voting, white smoke came out of the Vatican chimney and Ratzinger was announced as Pope Benedict XVI.
Benedict XVI is considered a fairly conservative pope. He expressed the conservative line in the church’s opposition to abortion, priestly marriage, the use of contraceptives and homosexuality. He refused to see the church as a body that had to change with the times and sanctified the old values and traditions.
Throughout his eight-year tenure, Benedict made several decisions that were perceived as hostile to Judaism. He defended Pope Pius XII who served during World War II and was criticized for his lack of protection for Jews during the Holocaust. At the same time, Benedict visited Auschwitz in 2006 and asked how God allowed this atrocity to take place. In 2009 he visited Israel and the Palestinian Authority. On February 11, 2013, he announced his resignation.