Former Pope Benedict XVI who resigned due to illness has died at the age of 95.
According to the Vatican, Pope Benedict died at his residence.
The Pope only led the Catholic Church for less than eight years until, in 2013, when he resigned due to his failing health.
In over six centuries, he became the first Pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415.
Benedict spent his final years within the walls of the Vatican at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery, where he died.
According to the statement released by the Vatican: “With sorrow I inform you that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, passed away today at 9:34 in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican.
“Further information will be provided as soon as possible.”
The Vatican has also announced that the body of the Pope Emeritus will be placed in St Peter’s Basilica from 2 January for “the greeting of the faithful” as preparations for his funeral is being arranged and will be announced later in the day.
Due to Pope Emeritus fast deteriorating condition, Pope Francis appealed to his final audience of the year at the Vatican on Wednesday to “pray a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict“.
Pope Benedict was born in Germany as Joseph Ratzinger. In 2005 at 78 he became one of the oldest popes ever elected.
For the better part of his reign, the Catholic Church faced allegations, legal claims and official reports into decades of child abuse by priests.
Following years of these allegations in the Catholic Church in Munich between 1977 and 1982, the former Pope acknowledged that errors had been made in the handling of cases reported.
A report into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Germany’s Munich diocese indicted the retired Pope Benedict XVI for failing to act in four cases between 1977 and 1982 when he was Archbishop of Munich.
