the nazis swept into power. his parents were hostile to the regime, and though their son entered junior seminary in 1939, he was forced to join the hitler youth just two years later. he and his brother george were ordained on the same day in 1951. george became a parish priest, joseph chose a quite different kind of ministry. first, a doctorate, appointments at prestigious universities, and then the vatican. a cardinal by his early 50s, an ailing popejohn paul ii made him head of the sacred congregation for the doctrine of faith, formerly the roman inquisition. there he upheld traditional catholic teaching on abortion, contraception and homosexuality. he even spoke against rock music and the harry potter books. whenjohn paul died in april 2005,
they learned of the news of the death of the pope here in the square. she said that she and her boyfriend were quite bewildered, it was a surreal moment, it was a sense of an unprecedented historical moment. she said nothing has happened quite like this before. i think many people now have been gathering in the square to pray for pope benedict. this is a man with a complicated legacy. there will be many who mourn him, there will be others who remember that he presided over the church at the moment where it was beginning to confront the scandal of sexual abuse by priests around the world. and that is something that pope benedict, former pope benedict admitted that he had made mistakes in handling. so a mixed picture here in rome. the vatican has mixed picture here in rome. the vatican has said mixed picture here in rome. the vatican has said that the funeral will take place on the 5th of january and will be led by pope
been flooding in from around the world. we know that the british prime minister, rishi sunak, said that benedict was a great theologian and his thoughts were with catholics in the uk and around the world. we have also heard from the leader of germany, a la schultz, who of course is benedict s home country. he said that the world had lost a formative figure in the catholic church. a competitive personality and a great theologian. competitive personality and a great theolouian. . , . ~ competitive personality and a great theolouian. . , . theologian. bethany, thank you. i will at saint theologian. bethany, thank you. i will at saint peter theologian. bethany, thank you. i will at saint peter square. - the vatican expert, suzy hodges, joins me now from rome. suzy covered the resignation of pope benedict xvi and worked for many years for the vatican radio vatican news. thank you forjoining us. we have said the word unprecedented quite a few times but i suppose we cannot over emphas
when he became the first pope in 600 years to announce his retirement. he was german by birth, and was known for his conservative theological outlook. bells tolling this was the moment his death was confirmed in rome. you can hear the bells ringing, in st peter s square in vatican city. the vatican says pope benedict s body will lie in state from monday in st peter s basilica and that pope francis will lead the funeral on january the 5th. here s our religon editor, aleem maqbool. cerebral by character, benedict was a prolific author and more at home with scholarship than pastoral work. he led the world s catholics for eight years and then abruptly resigned, the first pope to do so in 600 years. joseph ratzinger was born in southern germany. he was just six when
and raised tens of thousands of pounds for people fleeing ukraine. she receives a british empire medal. how does it feel to be honoured like this? i mean, it sjust absolutely amazing. and i think, because we ve had a bit of a gap and i m able to look back and reminisce, it is incredible what you can do in such a short amount of time. i think if i d planned it, it would never have happened, but we just. we just went with it and, yeah, it was amazing. just one of the many being recognised for making a difference to others. lizo mzimba, bbc news. a reminder of our top story. the former pope, benedict the sixteenth, has died in the vatican, almost a decade after he stood down because of ailing health. he was ninety five. bornjoseph ratzinger in germany, benedict led the roman catholic church for nearly eight years before becoming the first pope in six centuries to resign.