The former Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died at the age of 95 due to health conditions in his residence according to Vatican news.
His death was announced by the spokesperson of the Holy See. Benedict who in 2013 became the first pontiff in 600 years to resign, died in a secluded monastery in the Vatican where he had lived since stepping down.
The Vatican said his body would lie in state from Monday in St.Peter’s Basilica. The Vatican has painstakingly elaborate rituals for what happens after a reigning pope dies but no publicly known ones for a former pope.
His death comes after Pope Francis asked for prayers for him on Wednesday, saying he is “very sick”.
According to Reuters, Pope Francis made the surprise appeal at the end of his general audience, giving no details.
Francis said, speaking in Italian;
I would like to ask all of you for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict, who, in silence, is sustaining the Church. Let us remember him. He is very sick, asking the Lord to console and sustain him in this witness of love for the Church, until the end.
Meanwhile, Cardinal Antoine Kambanda has also called upon Christians to join Pope Francis and the whole universal church in prayer for him.
On Thursday, December 29, Kambanda tweeted;
The Church family of God, which is in Rwanda, in communion with Pope Francis and the entire Universal Church, prays to God through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and all the people who take care of him.
