Pope Benedict XVI succumbed and joins our Creator on New year's eve

 Archbishop Gänswein recounts Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's last words spoken during the night several hours before he died. It was precisely his seeking Jesus, "the beloved", that was the distinguishing hallmark of Joseph Ratzinger's priestly service, as Pope Francis himself recalled in 2016.

Photos by Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the 265th leader of the Roman Catholic Church, left a mixed legacy after his death at the age of 95 on December 31, 2022.

For critics, Benedict was a conservative who despised liberals. For supporters, the late former pontiff was one of the Catholic Church’s greatest theologians, and also a humble servant without qualms about relinquishing power. The German-born Joseph Ratzinger was the first pope to resign in 600 years.

The Vatican is set to hold his wake at the Saint Peter’s Basilica from January 2 to 4, followed by his funeral and burial on January 5. The body of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI lies in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Monday, January 2.

Journalist Andrea Tornielli recounts the following in an article on Vatican News:

The last words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI were heard in the middle of the night by a nurse. It was around 3 in the morning of 31 December, several hours before he died. Joseph Ratzinger had not yet entered his final moments, and at that time his collaborators and assistants were alternating in his care. With him at that precise moment there was only one nurse who does not speak German. “Benedict XVI,” his secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, recounts emotionally, “with just a whisper of a voice, but in a clearly distinguishable manner, said in Italian: ‘Lord, I love you!’ I was not there at the moment, but the nurse told me about it shortly afterwards. These were his last comprehensible words, because afterwards he was no longer able to express himself.”

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