Pope Benedict was the first Pope to “retire” in almost 600 years. He also was the oldest Pope at the time of his death.
NBC News reported yesterday:
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the Bavarian-born theologian whose conservative Roman Catholicism earned him the nickname “God’s Rottweiler,” and who shocked his flock by suddenly resigning the papacy after just eight years, died Saturday, the Vatican said.
He was 95.
Benedict was the longest-living pope, having surpa ssed Pope Leo XIII in September 2020…
…Born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger on April 16, 1927, in Marktl, Germany, Benedict, the son of police officer Josef and Maria, grew up in a Germany infected by Nazism.
Like his father, Benedict opposed Hitler. But at age 14, he was forced to join the Hitler Youth. And two years later, while still in the seminary, the future pope was conscripted into the German army and sent to the front.
With the Allies on the verge of victory, Benedict deserted and went home. After a brief stint in a prisoner-of-war camp, he returned to the seminary and, along with his brother, Georg, was ordained a priest on June 29, 1951.Unlike most priests, Benedict logged little time in parishes. Instead, he embarked on an academic career and found himself moving to the conservative right as German campuses moved to the liberal left in the 1960s.
The whole Catholic world was shocked when Benedict decided to step down as Pope. Many Catholics believed that there was something sinister taking place when he resigned in 2013.
Although we’re unaware if Archbishop Vigano has said much about Pope Benedict’s death, he did share some observations about Benedict’s resignation.
These observations were captured in a series of tweets on Twitter. The tweets even reference information on corrupt John Podesta’s emails regarding the Church. READ TO THE END
