The Pope emeritus Benedict XVI died on 31 December 2022 at his residence, Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, in the Vatican. He was 95 years old. His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, in his customary speech, in the Throne Hall of the Patriarchal Residence, after the Divine Liturgy for the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord and the memory of Saint Basil, during which he officiated on New Year’s morning in the Patriarchal Church in the Phanar, referred to the late Pope Benedict XVI:
“I would like to say two additional words of remembrance with respect and love and gratitude to the recently deceased Pope Benedict XVI, who at the beginning of his Pontifical Primate ministry officially visited our Ecumenical Patriarchate. Here, in this hall, we signed a joint declaration. We worked together repeatedly. When the Synod of Bishops of the Catholic Church met years ago in the Vatican, in the Sistine Chapel, he had invited me as the official keynote speaker to address the Cardinals and Bishops, on the subject of the Word of God, which took place in the context of a vespers that was celebrated in the Sistine Chapel. Benedict XVI was a great theologian, German by origin as you know, for a number of years a university professor, he also had orthodox students, among whom the later Archbishop of Australia Stylianos and the later Metropolitan of Switzerland Damascene, and I myself heard from Benedict saying that he got to know Orthodoxy better thanks to his Orthodox students, and in fact the aforementioned elite Orthodox theologians and Hierarchs. May his memory be eternal. He had the fortitude and courage to resign only eight years after his election as Bishop of Rome. He could go on because he was in good health, but he decided that he had to end the mandate, and that was about five hundred, six hundred years after the last Pope of Rome had resigned. At his funeral, which will take place next Thursday [5 January 2023], our Ecumenical Patriarchate will be represented by His Eminence Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon and His Eminence Metropolitan Polykarpos of Italy. May his memory be eternal.“
His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew sent the following letter of condolence to the Primate of the Roman Catholic Church, His Holiness Pope Francis, for the repose of his late predecessor Pope Benedict XVI:
Continue reading