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There were also PR gaffes he was criticized for telling reporters, in 2009, that distributing condoms would increase, not decrease, the spread of AIDS.īut he was also forced to confront the fallout of the church's sex abuse scandal, and notably apologized to victims.īenedict's dramatic decision to retire, rather than to remain in office until his death, paved the way for the election of Pope Francis, a more progressive cleric. As a conservative, many of his actions (such as relaxing the restrictions on Latin mass) satisfied traditionalists, but were controversial among more progressive voices in the clergy. He reached out to other faiths, and became only the second pope in history to enter a synagogue.

It seems as if everything would be just the same even without Him.' On his first foreign trip as pope, at a 2005 World Youth Day gathering in Cologne, Germany, he told a million attendees, 'In vast areas of the world today, there is a strange forgetfulness of God. He used his position to redirect the world's focus on faith in an era of secularization. The first German pope in a thousand years, Benedict – born Joseph Ratzinger – was a theologian and writer devoted to history and tradition, who was elected to succeed Pope John Paul II. The then-85-year-old thus became the first pope in 600 years to resign. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (April 16, 1927-December 31, 2022) stunned the world in 2013 when he announced, after eight years in office, that he lacked the strength to continue as head of the Catholic Church.

The Associated Press contributed to this gallery.

| Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis via Getty ImagesĪ look back at the esteemed personalities who left us this year, who'd touched us with their innovation, creativity and humanity.īy senior producer David Morgan. Pope Benedict XVI is greeted by the faithful in Les Combes in 2005.

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