By Ben Kerrigan-
Former Pope Benedict XVI has died, aged 95, almost a decade after he stood down because of ailing health.
He led the Catholic Church until,2013, and became the first Pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415.
Benedict spent his final years at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery within the walls of the Vatican where he passed away at 09:34 (08:34 GMT) on Saturday.
His successor Pope Francis will lead the funeral on 5 January.
The Vatican said the body of the Pope Emeritus will be placed in St Peter’s Basilica from 2 January for “the greeting of the faithful”.
Bells rang out from Munich cathedral, with a single bell was heard ringing from St Peter’s Square in Rome after the death was announced.
In his first public comments since news of Pope Benedict’s death broke, Pope Francis called him a gift to the church, describing him as a noble and kind man.
At a New Year’s Eve service at the Vatican he paid tribute to his “dearest” predecessor, emphasising “his sacrifices offered for the good of the church”.
In a message to Pope Francis following the death of his predecessor, the King said he received the news “with deep sadness”.
Charles spoke of meeting Benedict at the Vatican in 2009 and the following year when he became the second pope in history to visit the UK.
During the trip, Benedict met Queen Elizabeth II in Edinburgh and made a speech at Westminster Hall.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described Benedict as a “great theologian” whose UK visit was “an historic moment for both Catholics and non-Catholics throughout our country”.
President Joe Biden said he had “the privilege of spending time with Pope Benedict at the Vatican in 2011 and will always remember his generosity and welcome as well as our meaningful conversation”.
“He will be remembered as a renowned theologian, with a lifetime of devotion to the Church, guided by his principles and faith,” Mr Biden added.
“May his focus on the ministry of charity continue to be an inspiration to us all.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said Benedict had “worked with all his soul and intelligence for a more fraternal world”.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also paid tribute to the former pontiff, who was the first German pope in centuries after he was elected in 2005.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer also tweeted a tribute, saying Benedict’s state visit was a “historic and joyous moment for Catholics in Britain”.
Controversial
Benedict was controversial in his staunch opposition to homosexuality and contraception. He strongly liberation theology, a radical movement that began in South American in the 1960s and advocated clerical social activism among the poor and marginalised.
Benedict resigned at the age of 85, in February 2013, the first pope to do so since the middle ages, left the church he did not have the strength to carry on as leader of the world’s estimated 1.2 billion Catholics. “I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me,” he said.
He took the title of Pope Emeritus, and pledged to remain “hidden to the world”, devoting himself to private prayer. He retired to in a monastery in Vatican City, where he read, wrote letters and articles, received guests and played the piano.
The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, said Pope Benedict was “one of the great theologians of the 20th century”.
In a statement he said: “I remember with particular affection the remarkable Papal Visit to these lands in 2010. We saw his courtesy, his gentleness, the perceptiveness of his mind and the openness of his welcome to everybody that he met.”
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the former pope “a great theologian whose UK visit in 2010 was an historic moment for both Catholics and non-Catholics throughout our country”.
King Charles III said he received the news of Pope Benedict’s death “with deep sadness” and recalled “with fondness” meeting the him during a visit to the Vatican in 2009.
“I also recall his constant efforts to promote peace and goodwill to all people, and to strengthen the relationship between the global Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church.”
Joe Biden – only the second Catholic to serve as US president – said Pope Benedict “will be remembered as a renowned theologian, with a lifetime of devotion to the Church, guided by his principles and faith”.
Mr Biden singled out the pope’s remarks during a 2008 visit to the White House in which the former pontiff said “the need for global solidarity is as urgent as ever, if all people are to live in a way worthy of their dignity”.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Pope Benedict “worked with soul and intelligence for a more fraternal world” and said his thoughts went out to Catholics in France and around the world.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Pope Benedict “was a giant of faith and reason”.
“He put his life at the service of the universal Church and spoke, and will continue to speak, to the hearts and minds of men with the spiritual, cultural and intellectual depth of his Magisterium.”
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said for many, not only in Germany, Pope Benedict was “a formative figure of the Catholic Church, a forthright personality and a clever theologian”.
Irish President Michael D Higgins said the former pope would be remembered for “his untiring efforts to find a common path in promoting peace and goodwill throughout the world”.
Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said Pope Benedict was “one of the greatest theologians of his age – committed to the faith of the Church and stalwart in its defence”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Pope Benedict as a “defender of traditional Christian values,” in his New Year address to the nation.
While little has changed in terms of doctrinal discussion at the Vatican in the nearly 10 years since he stepped down, what has changed is the spirit of the papacy.
Pope Francis is widely regarded to have had a more pastoral approach and his appointments of cardinals show a clear shift towards Asia and Latin America.
Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer paid warm tribute to Benedict, referring to his 2010 visit to the UK as a historic moment. Other world leaders including Ireland’s Michael D Higgins, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Germany’s Olaf Scholz also issued tributes.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster and leader of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales, said he was a scholar, pastor and a man of God who would be remembered for “his courtesy, his gentleness, the perceptiveness of his mind and the openness of his welcome to everybody that he met”.
Justin Welby, the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, said Benedict was “one of the greatest theologians of his age”.
Earlier this week, Pope Francis announced during his weekly audience that Benedict was “very sick” and asked for people to pray for him.
Benedict, born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger in Germany in 1927, was a deeply conservative pontiff, whose tenure was overshadowed by sexual abuse scandals in the church. He retired leaving a chequered reputation after a papacy that was at times divisive.
He grew up in rural Bavaria, and at the age of 14 joined the Hitler Youth, a requirement, and served in the German army in the second world war. Towards the end of the war, he deserted and was briefly held as a prisoner of war by US forces.
He later became a major figure in the Vatican and, as Cardinal Ratzinger, served as a right-hand man to his predecessor, Pope John Paul II. He headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a Vatican department once known as the Inquisition, for 24 years, a position that earned him the nickname “God’s rottweiler”.
Under his leadership of the Catholic Church, allegations of clerical sexual abuse and its cover-up were rife and his critics accused him of failing to grasp the gravity of the crimes and the scale of the crisis, which reached a peak several years after he was elected pope in April 2005.
The Vatican was also rocked by the theft of confidential documents, many of which later appeared in an exposé of alleged corruption.
In October 2012, a Vatican court convicted the pope’s personal butler, Paolo Gabriele, of stealing the papers. He told the trial he had been acting against “evil and corruption”.
It was not quite “The Two Popes”, but in spite of their differences, there was by all accounts immense respect shown between predecessor and successor. We are likely to hear about that in the coming days and particularly in Pope Francis’s homily at the funeral on Thursday.
Annamaria, 65, and Patrizia, 64, visiting from the northern Italian city of Bologna, said they went there immediately as soon as they heard about the death.
Barbara Bernadas, a tourist from the Spanish city of Barcelona, said she and her boyfriend felt a sense of bewilderment when they heard the news.
“We learned of his death just as we were in St Peter’s Square. A tourist guide was just telling us where Benedict lived, it feels surreal. What will happen now? This situation is unprecedented; there are no protocols to follow for what will happen now. Certainly it is an unprecedented historical moment,” she said.
Only recently on Wednesday, Pope Francis appealed to his final audience of the year at the Vatican to “pray a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict”, whom he said was very ill.
Born Joseph Ratzinger in Germany, Benedict was 78 when in 2005 he became one of the oldest popes ever elected.
The Catholic Church faced allegations, legal claims and official reports into decades of child abuse by priests.