Joseph Ratzinger, better known as Pope Benedict XVI, one of the Catholic church’s most eminent modern theologians who upheld orthodox church teaching against numerous challenges in the late 20th century and shocked the world by his resignation as supreme pontiff, has died at the age of 95.
Benedict died Saturday morning in the Vatican monastery at which he had lived since resigning in 2013, the Vatican press office said. A cause of death was not provided. The former pope's body will lie in state at St. Peter's Basilica Monday and Pope Francis will preside over his funeral on Jan. 5.
Ratzinger was a prolific theologian, writing dozens of books over the course of his life, including many for a popular audience, such as the Jesus of Nazareth trilogy. The Catholic faith, according to Ratzinger, looked to Christ as the center of the Christian life, and thus the mark of adult faith was “friendship with Christ.”
Ratzinger brought his considerable talents as a theologian to his position as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , the Vatican body tasked with defending Catholic doctrine, between 1982 and 2005. During his time at the helm of this institution, Ratzinger earned the nickname “God’s Rottweiler” for his firm adherence to church teachings and his role censuring priests and theologians who strayed too far from orthodoxy.
After his resignation, Ratzinger published a controversial essay on sexual abuse in the church, which included language that hearkened back to his homily on the eve of his election as pope. Ratzinger argued the roots of the crisis were in the sexual revolution of the 1960s, which fought for “all-out sexual freedom, one which no longer conceded any norms.”
“The Pope is one, it is Francis,” Ratzinger said in 2019. “In the end the awareness that the Church is and must remain united has always prevailed. Its unity has always been stronger than internal struggles and wars,” he continued.