his funeral will be held on the 5th ofjanuary and will be presided over by pope francis. world health officials call on beijing to share accurate covid data, as england becomes the latest country to control arrivals from china. queen guitarist brian may and members of england s women s football team are among those celebrated in the uk s new year s honours list. the former pope, benedict xvi, has died at the age of 95. the vatican says he passed away this morning at his residence there. his health had been worsening in recent weeks. benedict served as head of the roman catholic church for eight years until 2013, 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
had a difficult papacy. as you - were in touch about? he certainlyl had a difficult papacy. as you said, child sexual abuse scandals dogged much of his time, especially in the latter years. much of his time, especially in the latteryears. but much of his time, especially in the latter years. but it has to be said that he helped to jump start the process to discipline or defrocked these predator priests. compared to his predecessor, he was quite. he was very much quoted for a speech he made following the death of the previous pope when he said how much filth there is within the church. that was a speech that raised eyebrows but was very prophetic. as you said, these child sexual abuse scandals hounded his papacy and also in the year before he resigned his pgpgcy in the year before he resigned his papacy was shaken by this scandal called the vatican vati leaks where
the catholic church has been plagued by scandal. most recently the sexual abuse of children and cover-up, money-laundering allegations, the vatican bank, the so-called vati-leaks including the release of embarrass iing papal documents by a vatican butler. six months into his papacy, observers say pope francis is changing the narrative. it was church in crisis. it was catholic watergate. now within 24 hours after francis election we were talking about new day dawns for the catholic church and charismatic pope takes the world by storm. in july, francis took his first international trip as pope to celebrate world youth day in brazil. the most populous catholic country in the world.
of his age. because he wasn t on anybody s list. and that said, i think the key fact of him is that he took the name francis. it s the first francis ever, took it from st. francis of assisi, one of whose great stories involved being told by christ, clean up my church which is in ruins. this suggests to me that this very humble seeming man, even a shy seeming man, a guy with little show biz, it suggestion suggests to me, he knows the trouble the church is in, the vati-leaks and at age 76 will move urgently my sense is and try to clean up.
will tell you dolan may not be bad for church, he s outspoken, to the point and very open about his desires to reform the church on so many levels from the banking scandal, to vati-leaks and the crisis in the church regarding children and sex, and whether that sort of openness would be welcome among the fold here in rome where, as you mentioned, for hundreds of years the italians had a lock and strong hold on the papacy, whether that would be a welcome and open things remains to be seen. we ll see. megyn: he s likeable and can talk to folks in a way they can understand and that s one of battles the church is facing, increasing secularism and how do they recruit new catholics and existing ones in the polls and many believe it would help to have a straight-talking pope who is very appealing. i want to ask you, shepard, you talk about the first vote, they don t think they ll get to 77 and takes some rounds. so, why are you being told. jockeying inside the conclave? is it appropriate f