Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. is dead. He died on Saturday morning at the age of 95 in his apartment in the Vatican, the Vatican announced. During his weekly general audience on Wednesday morning, Pope Francis asked people to pray for his predecessor, who was “very ill”.
Benedict XVI, whose real name was Joseph Ratzinger, was 95 years old. He was elected head of the Roman Catholic Church in 2005. In February 2013 he surprisingly resigned from this post. Since then he has lived in seclusion on the Vatican grounds. He has rarely appeared publicly since his resignation – for example in the summer of 2020, when he traveled to Regensburg to say goodbye to his dying brother Georg.
More soon on SZ.de