Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has passed away, the Vatican announced Saturday morning. He was 95 years old and had been in poor health for some time.

A statement from Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni on Saturday morning said that: “With sorrow I inform you that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died today at 9:34 in the Mater Ecclesia Monastery in the Vatican.” Vatican News in reporting the death called Benedict “a humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord.”

Stream contributor Father Dwight Longenecker offers this beautiful tribute to Benedict, while David Mills shares “The Wisdom of Benedict XVI.”

A Very Early Call … a Very Powerful Voice

Benedict was born Joseph Ratzinger on April 16, 1927 in Bavaria. The call to the priesthood came young. At age five, he presented flowers to Archbishop Michael von Faulhaber of Munich. As Fox News recounts, young Joseph saw the Archbishop’s crimson robes and refined demeanor and declared he would become a cardinal.

He would indeed rise to cardinal after entering the priesthood in 1951, ordained, in fact, by Archbishop von Faulhaber, the same cardinal who had inspired him as a child.

Pope John Paul II would appoint him head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — the Vatican’s department for the defense of true doctrine and practice. 

As Father Longenecker describes:

He defended the inspiration and reliability of the Scriptures and applied their teachings to the moral, political and philosophical challenges of the modern age. Along with his good friend and colleague, Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger defended the faith, called for a return to Christianity as the only foundation for a just and merciful society.

His powerful defense and dedication to conservative and traditional principles of the Roman Catholic Church earned him the nickname “God’s Watchdog.” It also left him a prime target of liberal and heretical elements of the church and enemies of the faith. To them, he was “God’s Rottweiler.”

Following John Paul II

In 2005, after the death of Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger was elected as the 265^th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. It was not something the 78-year-old cardinal sought or particularly welcomed, once comparing news of his selection to a “guillotine” coming down on him. Following John Paul II would have been a Herculean task for anyone.

As the Associated Press notes, Pope Benedict XVI could not have been any more different than his predecessor … or his successor.

No globe-trotting media darling or populist, Benedict was a teacher, theologian and academic to the core: quiet and pensive with a fierce mind. He spoke in paragraphs, not soundbites. 

As Pope, Benedict continued pulling against the forces of liberalism building in the church, and wrestling with the massive clergy sex abuse scandal. Indeed, before becoming Pope, he had taken the lead in dealing with the horrific scandal when, as AP put it, “he realized bishops around the world weren’t punishing abusers but were just moving them from parish to parish where they could rape again.

His Shocking Retirement … and Worries of a Schism

Then on February 11, 2013, Pope Benedict shocked the world. He announced he was retiring at age 85.  “After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited” to the demands of being the pope.

No pope had abdicated since 1415, nearly 600 years. The Stream’s John Zmirak will have more on Benedict’s departure in the coming days. 

Taking the title “Pope Emeritus,” Benedict withdrew from public life almost completely. Almost. But the existence of two living Popes, particularly two pontiffs with clear theological (and political) differences, did make for complications within the Roman Catholic Church, and even concerns of a schism..

Tributes Pour In

Yet today, as church bells ring across world in his honor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is being remembered for his intellect, his passionate defense of tradition and history, and his efforts for peace and reconciliation. The Associated Press is tracking world reaction here.

As of 9 a.m. Eastern, there has been no statement from the White House or devout Catholic Joe Biden.

However, Italian President Sergio Mattarella said Benedict’s passing a grief to the entire nation. Benedict, he said, “interpreted with finesse the reasons of dialogue, of peace, of the dignity of the person, as well as the supreme interests of religions.”

Polish President Andrzej Duda said Benedict’s teaching was a “guide post among the many winding and deceptive paths of contemporary world. “

The American Jewish Committee praised Benedict, recounting how “Benedict continued the path of reconciliation and friendship with world Jewry blazed by his predecessor, John Paul II.”

In Benedict’s native Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz called a “formative figure of the Catholic Church.”

But a humble one, says the pastor of the Altoetting, the Bavarian town where Benedict came many times as a pilgrim to pray to a famous statue of the Virgin Mary. “He was humble in the Bavarian way,” Pastor Klaus Metzl told the AP. “We all knew what he could do and how much he knew, but he never bragged about it.”

A Funeral for Benedict Later In The Week

His body will be on public display in St. Peter’s Basilica starting Monday, the Vatican announced, with a funeral mass scheduled for Thursday, with Pope Francis presiding. Benedict instructed that his funeral be celebrated solemnly but with “simplicity.”

Rest in Peace, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.