Joseph Ratzinger's papacy was marked by his sudden and almost unprecedented departure from office for health reasons. He died this Saturday at the age of 95.

Just under ten years after he stepped down, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died this Saturday, the Vatican confirmed. Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger was 95 years old.

"I regret to inform you that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passed away today at 9:34 a.m. at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican," the Vatican announced in a statement quoted by Notícias ao Minuto, adding that "further information will be sent as soon as possible."

The body of the Pope Emeritus will be in St. Peter's Basilica from Monday morning, January 2, "so that the faithful can say goodbye".

His death comes after Pope Francis requested a "special prayer" on December 28 for Ratzinger, who was "seriously ill".

Born in the Bavaria region of Germany in 1927, the bishop emeritus of Rome (the official position of the popes) had been ill and weak for several years, living in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in Vatican City.

Since 2020, biographers and members of the clergy have described the former Supreme Pontiff as rational, but with virtually incoherent speech. Pope Francis revealed at the beginning of December that he regularly visited his predecessor, ensuring that he remained aware and with a sense of humor, but admitting that he was almost always silent. In August 2022, in one of his last public appearances, Ratzinger was visited by Pope Francis and newly created cardinals.

Benedict XVI's will has been prepared for some time and should be made public in the next few days. The Pope Emeritus revealed to the Vatican that he prefers to be buried in the old tomb of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, whose remains are in a chapel in the Vatican, next to Michelangelo's sculpture 'Pietá'.

Conservative papacy tainted by pedophilia cases

In February 2013, the then Pope Benedict XVI shocked the Catholic world when he announced that he was going to abdicate, just eight years after being appointed by the 2015 Conclave, at the age of 78. At the time, the Pope Emeritus justified his decision on health grounds.

His departure was made official on February 28. Benedict XVI was the first Pope to abdicate since Pope Gregory XII in 1415. He was the eighth Pope of German nationality.

If his curriculum vitae as a theologian already showed strong conservative and traditional views, his papacy saw a consolidation of these positions. Between 2005 and 2013, Benedict XVI's 'mandate' was marked by a fight against attempts to innovate the Catholic Church and against social activism, especially at a time when the right to abortion grew exponentially throughout the world (including in Portugal in 2007).

But his papacy was essentially marked by the scandal of sexual abuse of minors by hundreds of priests in the Irish Catholic Church in 2009. A report revealed that the Archdiocese of Dublin promoted a culture of total cover-up of cases of pedophilia, with an estimated 15,000 victims between the 70s and 90s. The scandal took on similar proportions to the Boston scandal in 2002.

Later, it was revealed that Pope Benedict XVI had removed almost 400 priests between 2011 and 2012 over accusations of pedophilia.

The Pope Emeritus himself has been at the center of a new controversy this year regarding the cover-up of sexual abuse in the Church. A report by the German church revealed that then-archbishop Joseph Ratzinger helped to hide four cases of pedophilia, which emerged between 1977 and 1982.