On December 31st of 2022, former pope, Benedict XVI passed away at the age of 95.

The former pope’s death occurred only 3 days after the deterioration of his health was reported.

Matteo Bruni, the Vatican spokesman, made an official announcement  saying, "With sorrow I inform you that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, passed away today at 9:34 in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican.”

Benedict XVI was born in Bavarian, Germany and his real name is Joseph Alois Ratzinger.

As John Paul's successor, he became the 265th pope in April 2005.

Benedict XVI was already 78 years old when he acceded the title, which makes him record the longest life among all the popes.

Benedict XVI is evaluated as a Catholic theologian who emphasized principles.

While cleaving to principles, he still understood everyone in different classes.

When incidents of sexual harassment from priests were disclosed to the world, Benedict XVI was in a difficult situation.

But he met the victims himself to apologize.

Moreover, he apologized to the public for the Catholic church’s misbehavior.

In February of 2013, only 8 years after becoming the pope, he resigned by himself, citing the reason being his health issues.

The voluntary resignation of the pope had never happened for 598 years of the papacy until Benedict XVI’s voluntary resignation.

This shocked the Catholic church and its members.

After 8 years of reign, he stayed at Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican City as a pope emeritus.

This was a rare situation as it is a Catholic tradition for popes to work until they pass away.

As his successor, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, now the current pope, Pope Francis, was elected.

A movie entitled “The Two Popes” was produced after Benedict XVI’s voluntary resignation, dealing with the story of the process of Pope Francis becoming the next pope.

When the pope passes away, cardinals from all over the world gather to mourn and participate in a conclave to elect the next pope.

However, the cardinals will be gathering to mourn in this rare case as Benedict XVI had already elected Pope Francis through a conclave when he was resigning.

The Vatican is contemplating pope emeritus’s funeral procedure.

According to several presses like BBC, the Catholic Church carries out a strict ceremony when the pope dies, but it is still unclear if the same procedure will be applied to the retired pope.

Meanwhile, Benedict XVI’s funeral will be held presided over by Pope Francis, on the morning of this month's 5th at St. Peter’s Square.

Matteo Bruni, the Vatican spokesman, had said that acting on Benedict XVI’s wishes, the funeral will be “simple,” and “solemn but sober.”

There were mourning messages sent from world leaders.

World leaders such as Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, French President, Emmanuel Macron, Irish President, Michael D Higgins, USA President, Joe Biden, and South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk-yeol sent messages expressing their condolences.

Yoon Suk-yeol expressed sorrow to all the Catholics who lost the former pope.