{"id":56665,"date":"2022-12-31T17:19:15","date_gmt":"2022-12-31T22:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=56665"},"modified":"2022-12-31T17:19:27","modified_gmt":"2022-12-31T22:19:27","slug":"pope-emeritus-benedict-xvi-dies-at-95-after-days-of-worsening-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2022\/12\/pope-emeritus-benedict-xvi-dies-at-95-after-days-of-worsening-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI dies at 95 after days of worsening health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died Saturday after days of health issues, according to the Vatican.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Holy See Press Office said the former \u201cVicar of Christ\u201d died at 9:34 a.m. at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican, where he had lived after giving up his position in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vatican officials said Benedict XVI, originally born Joseph Ratzinger, had been suffering from health problems for days due to his old age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pope emeritus\u2019 successor, Pope Francis, asked the people to pray for the former pontiff before his death in light of his predecessor\u2019s declining health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet us ask the Lord to console him and to sustain him in this witness of love for the Church, until the end,\u201d Pope Francis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in 1927 at Marktl am Inn, Germany, Benedict XVI grew up in the turmoil of Nazi violence that culminated in World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Vatican, the young Joseph Ratzinger witnessed Nazis beat a priest before Mass as the party took a hostile approach to the Catholic Church. He was also enrolled in an auxiliary anti-aircraft corps until September 1944, when he was 17 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After World War II, the pope-to-be studied philosophy and theology before being ordained as a priest in 1951.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Known for his academic approach to theology, Benedict XVI climbed the ranks of the priesthood before being granted the rank of cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1977.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly 30 years later, Joseph Ratzinger would be elected as Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 following the death of Pope John Paul II, a now-canonized saint who held the papacy for 27 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to inheriting the papacy, Benedict XVI also inherited the scandal of the clerical sex abuse scandal that plagued the Catholic Church for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time of his election, the 78-year-old Benedict XVI was the oldest man to be elected Pope since 1730, and eight years later, he announced his resignation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His papacy ended on Feb. 28, 2013. The following month, the 2013 papal conclave named Benedict XVI\u2019s successor: the Argentinian bishop Jorge Bergoglio, now known as Pope Francis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vatican said the former pope\u2019s body will be taken to St. Peter\u2019s Basilica Monday. His funeral will be Thursday in St. Peter\u2019s Square.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died Saturday after days of health issues, according to the Vatican. The Holy See Press Office said the former \u201cVicar of Christ\u201d died at 9:34 a.m.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":56666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[2039],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56665"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56668,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56665\/revisions\/56668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}