Benedict's death eases way for retirement of Francis

Pope Benedict XVI, who served as leader of the Catholic church from 2005 until his resignation in 2013, died last Saturday aged 95, three days after his successor, Pope Francis, warned the world that he was gravely ill. His funeral was due to be held this week.

- Harriet Sherwood

Benedict's death brings to a close an unprecedented period in recent history where two popes have coexisted, a situation that has caused tensions within rival camps in the Vatican. It eases the way for his successor, Pope Francis, to consider whether to follow Benedict by retiring at some point impossible while the outcome would have been three popes.

Last Sunday, looking weary with his head bowed, Francis prayed for Benedict's passage to heaven at a special New Year's Day mass.

"Today we entrust to our Blessed Mother our beloved Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, so that she may accompany him in his passage from this world to God," he said.

Justin Welby, the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, said Benedict was "one of the greatest theologians of his age".

Benedict, born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger in Germany in 1927, was a deeply conservative pontiff, whose tenure was overshadowed by sexual abuse scandals in the church.

He retired leaving a chequered reputation after a papacy that was at times divisive.

The son of a policeman, he grew up in rural Bavaria and at the age of 14 joined the Hitler Youth, a requirement, and served in the German army in the second world war. Towards the end of the war, he deserted and was briefly held as a prisoner of war by US forces.