The Vatican confirmed that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passed away at the age of 95.
His passing on Saturday came after Pope Francis requested prayers for him, stating that he was “extremely unwell.”
According to the Holy See Press Office, Benedict, the first German pope in a millennium, passed away in the Mater Ecclesiae convent, where he had chosen to live after stepping down in 2013.
The Vatican has been vague about what ailed Benedict, saying only that his worsening health was due to his advanced age.
For nearly 25 years, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict was the powerful head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, then known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
(CDF).
Conservatives in the Church have looked to the former pope as their standard bearer and some ultra-traditionalists even refused to acknowledge Francis as a legitimate pontiff.
