Former Pope Benedict XVI died today (Saturday) at the age of 94, after a long battle with cancer, according to a special announcement from the Vatican City.
"It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Pope Benedict XVI at the Mater Ecclesia monastery in Vatican City. More information will be provided as soon as possible," the Vatican statement said.
Unlike his predecessor in the high office, John Paul II, and his successor - Francis, Pope Benedict XVI was not an idol of the masses.
He did not have the charisma required for this, nor the spiritual flight to turn the Holy See in the Vatican into an institution that changes world orders.
However, in his own way, Benedict - or in his birth name, Joseph Aloysius Ratzinger - wrote history in his life: Ratzinger, who was born in southern Germany in 1927, became in 2005 the first German to be elected as Pope after about 500 years in which a German did not rule at the head of the Catholic Church.
Almost 8 years later, on February 11, 2013, without any prior preparation of about one billion and 300 million believers, the Vatican announced the German Pope's decision to step down for health reasons.
Since 1294, no Pope has left the Holy See while alive and of his own free will.
When the white smoke announced his election, Benedict was the oldest pope elected since 1724 (78 years), and upon his death he became the longest-lived pope - 95 years.
For, upon his retirement - as God's representative on earth, he continued to bear the title "Pope Emeritus", that is, Pope in retirement.
Pope Leo XIII died in 1903 at the age of 93. Unlike Benedict, he served until his last day.
However, it was not these dry facts about origin, age and retirement that made Benedict leave his mark on the Catholic Church.
Ratzinger is considered one of the most important theologians the Catholic Church has known in the last hundred years.
His great influence on the church began even before he was appointed Pope, and he is considered a contemporary of John Paul II, during the years of his ministry that helped bring down the communist "Iron Curtain".
Benedict published or co-authored dozens of books, which dealt with essential and practical religious questions.
He is considered the leader of the conservative current in the church, and by virtue of this, even before he was elected pope, he prevented the promotion of many necessary reforms to adapt the church to contemporary times.
He provoked a lot of criticism, when he canceled the boycott of members of ultra-conservative currents in the church, including the Holocaust denier bishop Richard Williamson, and when he avoided dealing with the issue of the sexual exploitation of minors by senior church officials. However, he continued the initiative of his predecessor, John Paul II , to deepen the dialogue with Judaism,
He was the first pope to visit a synagogue in Germany, condemned anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, visited the German extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, and in 2010 became the third pope to visit Israel.
This visit also created grounds for criticism towards the German Pope, who in his youth was forcibly recruited into the ranks of the "Hitlerjugend" and later into the ranks of the air defense of the collapsing Third Reich.
Following the speeches he gave at Yad Vashem, it was alleged that he did not find the right words to address the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, to condemn anti-Semitism and to express the feelings required of this status.
But when he retired from his position, three years after you, many - including the then president of the country, Shimon Peres, the chief rabbi at the time, Yona Metzger, and leaders of Jewish organizations, praised Benedict's great contribution to promoting dialogue between the two religions.
This issue preoccupied Ratzinger even after his retirement from the papal throne.
And in 2010 he was the third Pope, who visited Israel.
This visit also created grounds for criticism towards the German Pope, who in his youth was forcibly recruited into the ranks of the "Hitlerjugend" and later into the ranks of the air defense of the collapsing Third Reich.
Following the speeches he gave at Yad Vashem, it was alleged that he did not find the right words to address the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, to condemn anti-Semitism and to express the feelings required of this status.
But when he retired from his position, three years after you, many - including the then president of the country, Shimon Peres, the chief rabbi at the time, Yona Metzger, and leaders of Jewish organizations, praised Benedict's great contribution to promoting dialogue between the two religions.
This issue preoccupied Ratzinger even after his retirement from the papal throne.
And in 2010 he was the third Pope, who visited Israel.
This visit also created grounds for criticism towards the German Pope, who in his youth was forcibly recruited into the ranks of the "Hitlerjugend" and later into the ranks of the air defense of the collapsing Third Reich.
Following the speeches he gave at Yad Vashem, it was alleged that he did not find the right words to address the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, to condemn anti-Semitism and to express the feelings required of this status.
But when he retired from his position, three years after you, many - including the then president of the country, Shimon Peres, the chief rabbi at the time, Yona Metzger, and leaders of Jewish organizations, praised Benedict's great contribution to promoting dialogue between the two religions.
This issue preoccupied Ratzinger even after his retirement from the papal throne.
It was argued against him that he did not find the right words to refer to the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, to condemn anti-Semitism and to reveal the emotions required of this status.
But when he retired from his position, three years after you, many - including the then president of the country, Shimon Peres, the chief rabbi at the time, Yona Metzger, and leaders of Jewish organizations, praised Benedict's great contribution to promoting dialogue between the two religions.
This issue preoccupied Ratzinger even after his retirement from the papal throne.
It was argued against him that he did not find the right words to refer to the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, to condemn anti-Semitism and to reveal the emotions required of this status.
But when he retired from his position, three years after you, many - including the then president of the country, Shimon Peres, the chief rabbi at the time, Yona Metzger, and leaders of Jewish organizations, praised Benedict's great contribution to promoting dialogue between the two religions.
This issue preoccupied Ratzinger even after his retirement from the papal throne.
In the last years of his life, in which there was a consistent deterioration in his health, there was also a deterioration in the situation of the Catholic Church worldwide, mainly due to the exposure of the many cases of sexual exploitation by church members.
In Germany, a record number of people who left the Catholic Church was recorded in 2022: about 360,000 former believers.
The number of baptism ceremonies for the Catholic Church in Germany is significantly lower than the number of funerals it holds.
Benedict, by the way, asked to be buried next to his predecessor, the Polish Pope John Paul II.
The two were very much connected in their lives, and now in their deaths as well.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us