VATICAN CITY — Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died Dec. 31, 2022 at age 95, had a long and illustrious career as one of the Catholic Church’s outstanding theologians.
Yet for all his achievements and distinctions, he will always be known for being the first pontiff to resign in 600 years.
The former German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was in charge of the Vatican to ensure adherence to the doctrine before becoming pope.
Then, following being elected pontiff in 2005, he continued the conservative course set by Saint John Paul II, delivering intellectually rigorous sermons bemoaning how the world seemed to think it might live without God.
But on February 11, 2013, he revealed in Latin that he was leaving the papacy the next day during a meeting of Vatican cardinals, shocking even his closest aides.
On February 28, he left Vatican City in a helicopter for Castel Gandolfo, where he began his final journey as a “simple pilgrim.”
But why did he resign from the papacy, just eight years following taking office?
Benedict XVI explained it in his own words: he did not have “the strength neither in his body nor in his mind” to carry out his duties, especially in the face of “a changing world.”
It was the first time in 600 years that a pope had resigned by choice.
