Saturday, December 31, 2022 – Pope Benedict XVI has died; bringing to a close an unprecedented period of two Popes in recent history.
The two popes coexisted in this period, a situation that has caused tensions within rival camps in the Vatican.
According to the Guardian, this eases the way for his successor, Pope Francis, to consider whether to follow Benedict by retiring at some point – impossible while the outcome would have been three popes.
Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer while paying their warm tribute, described Benedict as a clergy whose 2010 to the UK as a historic moment.
Other world leaders including Ireland’s Michael D Higgins, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Germany’s Olaf Scholz also issued their heartfelt condelences.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols said “his courtesy, his gentleness, the perceptiveness of his mind and the openness of his welcome to everybody that he met”.
