ah ah ah this is dw news live from berlin farewell to the former pope. the bells ring at saint peter's basilica, marking the death of the former pontiff benedict. the 16th tribute to the 95 year old begin to flood in from around the world will take you live to the attic.

ah, i'm nick spicer. welcome to the program for pope benedict has died at the age of $95.00. a spokesman for the holy c said benedict passed away at his home inside the vatican. for centuries, the tolling of the bells and saint peter square has been the signal that the pope has died. benedict health had been declining in recent days. in a statement, the vatican spokesman confirmed the former pontiff. jeff, i am here with sad news this morning. which is the sad news we anticipated with the holy c press office bulletin this morning. that was sorrow. we inform you that the pope meritus benedict 16 passed away to day this morning at 934

in the matter. it clears him monastery in the vatican. and let's go straight to our special correspond either him in rome or what, what's the situation like where you are, what's the mood, the vatican? so we saw in the hours directly after the announcement was made, that the crowds were trickling around here in the area. where are you? i'm right now around saint peter's square to to, to, to more in the last of the former pope benedict. now the crowds have come down just in the past half hour or so, but we can expect that in the coming days and in the lead up to the funeral next week. that will change and that more and more and more mourners, more faithful will be gathering here around saint peter's square. and certainly for the funeral. i mean, we know that the pope will be lying and state starting monday so that mourners can come and pay the respect. but there is also a sense that this was expected. this pope had resigned. he cited because of the

treating health. and on wednesday, the sitting pope had already announced that his health was rapidly deteriorating and asked the faithful to prefer him. so there's certainly a sense of morning, but a sense of this was expected that this news was coming. and what is the mood like among the people there? is it mostly sadness are there? there are other emotions. well, as i mentioned, there is a sense of morning. of course, there is a sense of last for, for, for a figure, you know, a historical figure of the catholic church represented a certain kind of thought that is still popular among many of the people. but at the same time that this news was coming, they have been briefing themselves and certainly has brave catholic believers around the world with his and i was put on wednesday that benedict for 16 health was deteriorating. was it was expected, but of course, or the center. and what can we expect to happen in the,

in the next few days in terms of ceremony and saying goodbye to, to be formal. well this is a sort of almost unprecedented patrician. there are for some very solid a protocols and, and so rules to be followed the event that as sitting poor guys. but we are now here in a, in a situation that the catholic church has almost 600 years that he hope who has resigned a former pope who then after his resignation has stayed in the vatican, has died. so certain things like the gathering of the conclave to, to elect you, obviously won't happen, won't happen, the destruction of the people feel the ceiling of the people apartments. all of these protocols are for sitting for these won't happen. these of course won't happen because we are now in the event of the death of a former pope, but we do know that they will be a funeral. now on the 5th of january. so this coming thursday. and that,

that this funeral will be presided over by the current sitting pope, pope transit. also, it's important to remember that in his, in his capacity as former pope bennett, the 16th was also the head of state of the vatican. so we can also expect that had to states and dignitaries from all over the world will be attending the funeral. we don't have confirmations on who will be attending it, but that's certainly something that we can expect. okay, d w special correspondent ibrahim reporting for us from ro let's take a moment now to look back at the life of former pope benedict, the 60 some teachers square in rome, april 2005. got the name. but i didn't get it. joseph rat, singer is elected pope benedict. the 16th is in yoda cardinelli. the lord cardinals have chosen me

a simple and humble worker in the vineyard of the lord lavinia this in your new polk from germany will make history. but leave a troublesome legacy. joseph rat, singer was born in bavaria in 1927. he was the youngest child of a strictly religious family. he studied and then taught theology, and he ascended the hierarchy of the catholic church. in 1977, he was appointed archbishop of munich. shortly afterwards, he was made a cardinal, then pope john paul, the 2nd, brought him to the vatican, where he was made prefect of the influential congregation for the doctrine of the faith. and when john paul died in 2005, right, so that became his successor. you had a reputation for being quiet, modest and an arch conservative. he was also an intellectual and was not

a man of grand gesture like his freed assessor, was even so his 1st trip to world youth day in germany would seem to success. hundreds of thousands came to cheer him as pope he saw himself as the guardian of the faith of the catholic church and was a strict advocate of celibacy. 8 he criticized the recognition of same sex relationships and condemned doctor super formed abortions. ready benedict sought dialogue with other religions seeking contact with the leaders of the christian orthodox churches. he also tried to improve relations with islam and judaism. but there were also setbacks. for example, when he brought the controversial society a st pious back into the church, even though some of its leaders were anti c mites and holocaust deniers. but it was the child abuse scandals in the church that cost the dark shadow appendix bon

ticket. more and more cases involving catholic clergy came to light in more and more countries. the pope spoke of his shame and he promised transparency. but his critics said he didn't do enough. years later, the scandal was to catch up with him again. at the beginning of 2013 benedict received some cardinals in rome with a routine meeting that became highly controversial because the pope declared he was stepping down at knob im sung to pay to steer this church this ship of peter to proclaim the gospel for this a strength of body and spirit necessary size is a strength that has diminished me in recent months. to such an extent that i must recognize my inability to continue to carry out properly. the ministry entrusted to me and yoshi 90 p. m. the mood provoked surprise and dismay in more than 600 years, no, pope had resigned his own volition. there was plenty of sympathy, though,

and hundreds of thousands of people came to benedict's last audiences. took benedict left office on february the 28th 2013 a few weeks later and there was an image for the history books to pope's standing side by side. the ameritas benedict promised obedience to his successor pipe frances. in the years that followed, benedict rarely showed himself in public. ah, but at the beginning of 2022, the report of the new inquiry into the abuse scandal in germany was published it incriminated benedict, the 16th during his time is archbishop. he is said to have accepted a priest, although it was known that the man had abused children on multiple occasions. benedict had his private secretary, read out

a letter in which he rejected any personal guilt and offered an apology to cynthia . oh meekly country unquote, own avoid a ppo, as on other occasions, i can only express once again, my deep shame, my great pain form that and my sincere apologies to an old victims of sexual abuse . yes. and she had a dorman, that the fed adorn benedict critics. said he was shirking his responsibility. the ameritas type himself wrote in one of his last letters that he would soon appear before the eternal judge and was confident that he would be forgiven. and with me now for more and this is our religious affairs correspondent, martin. god, thanks for being here. can you tell us what was life like between the 2 pokes? what was their relationship once and it can step down? i think it along the relation was quite warm and i mean francis made at that point

to sort of bring bring benedict into the fold and sort of visit him regularly, very, very often with the present camera so that the wider catholic world could see as an expression of a church unified nonetheless, i mean the difference in ideological or at least in, in approach to the way to administer the church and to think of the church reflected a lot of the vision also within the flux. so, i mean, i think that probably the 2 men were much more respectful and carrying for each other basically because they both had been you know, at the very top of the hierarchy of the church than, than the floor. which actually was very much divided along the lines that these 2 men represented. so very conservative got the leg catholic world, which really continued to see itself. us essentially ruled to some degree by what they consider to be the real thing of so benedict and sort of you know, another part of the church much more progressive dot essentially words and borders

and remain supporters of friends. and so i think that this division is actually the relation is quite interesting. precisely. does it reflect much broader relation among sort of, you know, between 2 polarized forces the wider the wider public sphere? well, can you explain to me a little bit more about benedicts legacy? intellectually, he wrote 60 books and he was a ph. d in theology taught at universities a self describe thinking, intellectual, and in 1981 became prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faces, often described as the doctrinal watchdog. so what it was his intellectual legacy. i mean, he was known as the theological rottweiler. so i mean, right, somebody that this was an expression that was use and it was use in the u. k. assess, he was bring his 2010. i believe they said, ah, i, it's understood that he was a very kind and very quiet man and not withstanding whatever the institutional his

institutional record may be. but she was most certainly an intellectual, and he was somebody that sort of saw it as his as his job, to a large degree to defend the doctrine and to defend the dogma and babe in this. but when i say doctrine dog, my certainly do not mean this rogatories sense. i mean, he really thought that he was in it sort of one of his test was actually to defend catholicism in. it's sort of say pure form. this obviously brought him into confrontation with a lot of people that sort of wanted much more open and much more, let's say, a multi faceted catalyst system. but i think that ultimately what also happens is that this man who was an intellectual and intellectual forest to a large degree, showed himself to be not a particularly competent administrator. and they think that at some point, really, you know, he did not relish, as it was said today, he did not relish the fight. and at some point he showed that he was no longer suited for it or no longer suitable for it. i think that that was when he resign

essentially going back to the light of the life of intellectual contemplation. okay . did you say religious affairs that are martin gac thank you so much. that was and we're going to recap our top story right now. the former pope benedict the 16th has died. we're showing you a lot of pictures of saint peter's square at the vatican. a spokesman for the vatican said he passed away at his residence in a monastery just after 930 this morning. the current pontiff, pope francis visited benedict at his home earlier this week and said he was very ill and urged the faithful to pray for. oh, benedict was the 1st german pope in almost 500 years. he was also the 1st pope in modern times to step down and bring his to the end of our show. don't forget you can always get the w use on the go. just download our app from google play or from the apple app store and give

you access to all the latest news from around the world. as well as push notifications for any breaking news. on a spicer base with ah, i mean i am using the catholic world celebrated.