The Bishop of Shrewsbury has paid tribute to Pope Benedict XVI, who died on Saturday at the age of 95 years.
The Rt Rev. Mark Davies said that during the visit to Britain by Pope Benedict in 2010 the country met “a gentle and serene pastor, a man of great learning and understanding of the modern world who spoke with clarity and courage amid the confusion of our times”.
Bishop Davies said: “I was appointed Bishop of Shrewsbury by Pope Benedict and will always remember the 15 minutes I spent discussing the situation of the Shrewsbury Diocese with him.
“He spoke that day of the need of courage in giving witness to Christ. This was the courage we saw in Pope Benedict himself who was by nature reserved yet called to undertake great responsibilities in the Church and to give witness before the world. This witness will be enduring. May he rest in peace.”
The German pope died at 9.34am Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, his residence, after his health deteriorated sharply last week.
His body is lying in state at St Peter’s Basilica from today until his Requiem Mass there on January 5, celebrated by Pope Francis, his successor.
Francis used his general audience last Wednesday to reveal to the world the declining health of Benedict and to request prayers for him, saying he was “very ill”.
The Emeritus Pope received the Sacrament of the Sick later that day.
It later emerged that he was losing consciousness, and his decline was attributed to old age. He rallied later in the week and by Thursday had become sufficiently strong to participate in a Mass from his bed.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster and President of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said he was “deeply saddened” by the death of Pope Benedict.
Cardinal Nichols said: “He will be remembered as one of the great theologians of the 20th century.
“I remember with particular affection the remarkable Papal Visit to these lands in 2010. We saw his courtesy, his gentleness, the perceptiveness of his mind and the openness of his welcome to everybody that he met.
“He was through and through a gentleman, through and through a scholar, through and through a pastor, through and through a man of God – close to the Lord and always his humble servant.”
The Cardinal added: “Pope Benedict is very much in my heart and in my prayers. I give thanks to God for his ministry and leadership.”
The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales will celebrate Requiem Masses for the repose of the soul of the late Pope Emeritus in their cathedrals.
Prayer cards have been distributed to Catholic parishes throughout the two countries.
Bishop Hugh Gilbert of Aberdeen, the President of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, said the Church has lost “one of the leading Catholic figures of the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of our own”.
He said: “By nature a shy and scholarly man and by profession a priest-theologian, he found himself drawn ever more into public life as Archbishop of Munich, as Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome and finally as Pope – the first German since the end of the 2nd World War to attain world pre-eminence.
“His memorable State visit to the United Kingdom in 2010 began in Scotland. The gentle and prayerful intelligence revealed during that visit disarmed his critics. He was often misunderstood, even caricatured.
“Contrary to a widespread perception, however, he was a resolutely contemporary ‘confessor of the faith’, deeply and critically engaged with modern thought, a lucid and unacademic preacher and pastorally sensitive.
“His bold, independent spirit surprised us all with his decision to resign while in office, the first Pope to do so for centuries.
“He once wrote: ‘My basic intention has been to expose the real core of the faith underneath the encrustations, and to give this core its true power and dynamism. This has been the constant direction of my life’. His full stature will surely emerge increasingly. May he rest in peace.”
Pope Emeritus Benedict was born Joseph Ratzinger on 16 April 1927 at Marktl am Inn, in Bavaria, near the Austrian border. His mother had worked as a cook and his father was a policeman whose criticisms of the Nazis led to the family moving from one small town to another.
On 29 June 1951, he and his brother Georg were ordained priests and Joseph taught theology at Freising and then in Bonn. From 1963 to 1966 he taught at Münster, and from 1966 to 1969 in Tübingen. In 1969 he took up a professorship at the University of Regensburg. In 1962, aged 35, he had accompanied Cardinal Josef Frings of Cologne as a peritus, or theological adviser, to the Second Vatican Council, attending all four sessions.
In 1977, Pope Paul VI named him Archbishop of Munich and later that year he was made a cardinal. In 1981, Pope John Paul appointed Cardinal Ratzinger as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the department of the curia responsible for promoting and defending the Catholic faith.
In the six years leading up to its publication in 1992, Cardinal Ratzinger headed the committee that drew up the Catechism of the Catholic Church, encouraged by Pope John Paul II. It aimed at being an organic synthesis of the essentials of Catholic doctrine, as regards both faith and morals, in the light of the Second Vatican Council.
On 19 April 2005, Cardinal Ratzinger, aged 78, was elected Pope, and chose the name Benedict. He was the first German pope in almost 1,000 years.
Pope Benedict wrote three encyclicals. Deus Caritas Est (God is Love, 2005) discussed the positive value of two Greek words for love, eros and agape, and of the word for friendship, philia.
In Spe Salvi (Saved by Hope, 2007) he explored the relationship between the virtue of hope and Christian redemption. Caritas in Veritate (Love in Truth, 2009) covered aspects of social justice, global development and respect for the environment.
Another encyclical, Lumen Fide (The Light of Faith) was finished by his successor, Pope Francis.
On 11 February 2013 he announced that he would retire, aged 85 years he was the fourth oldest person ever to be Pope.
(Picture courtesy of Vatican Media)