It was a Monday morning in February 2013 when the world stopped. At least, the Catholic world did. Pope Benedict XVI, speaking in Latin—a language he loved but that most of the room barely followed—announced he was quitting.
He didn't use the word "quit," of course. He used the word renuntiare.
For 600 years, popes didn't just leave. They died in the harness. They stayed until the very last breath, often through grueling, public declines. But Benedict, then 85, basically told the College of Cardinals that his "strengths, due to an advanced age," were no longer suited to the job. It was a mic-drop moment in the most holy sense.
So, what happened to the last pope after he walked away from the throne?
Honestly, it wasn't the total disappearance people expected. He didn't just vanish into a library. For nearly a decade, the Church lived in a "two-popes" reality that was occasionally awkward, often quiet, and ended in a way that changed the papacy forever.
The Monastery Life Nobody Expected
After his final flight from the Vatican to Castel Gandolfo—a scene featuring a white helicopter that looked like something out of a movie—Benedict eventually settled into the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery. It’s a small, stone-walled building tucked away in the Vatican Gardens.
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You’ve probably seen the photos. He traded the elaborate papal robes for a simple white cassock. He stopped wearing the "Fisherman’s Ring" and the red "Prada" shoes that the media loved to gossip about.
Life became a routine of prayer, study, and listening to Mozart.
He lived with a small "papal family," including his long-time secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, and four consecrated laywomen who handled the household. He grew frail. His voice, always soft, became a whisper. He spent hours in a garden filled with lemon trees, often sitting on a bench with a rosary. It sounds peaceful, right? Mostly, it was. But being a "Pope Emeritus" created a massive theological headache that the Church hadn't prepared for.
The Tension Between Two Men in White
There was no "Pope Emeritus Handbook." Because Benedict was the first to take the title, he had to invent the role as he went along.
Pope Francis was elected just weeks after Benedict stepped down. For the first time in history, you had the "reigning" pope and the "emeritus" pope living essentially in the same backyard. While the two men genuinely liked each other—Francis often called Benedict a "wise grandfather"—the world around them wasn't always so friendly.
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Conservative Catholics who weren't fans of Francis’s more liberal leanings started looking at Benedict’s monastery as a sort of "shadow Vatican."
Whenever Benedict wrote an essay or gave a rare interview, people scanned it for "hidden messages" or signs that he disagreed with his successor. A 2020 book on priestly celibacy, which Benedict contributed to, caused a huge stir because it seemed to contradict Francis's upcoming decisions. It was a mess. Benedict eventually asked for his name to be removed from the cover. He just wanted to be a scholar again, but once you’ve been the most powerful religious figure on earth, you can’t exactly go back to being "just a priest."
The Final Pilgrimage: Benedict's Death and Legacy
By 2022, the "pilgrimage toward home," as Benedict called it, was reaching its end.
He was 95 years old. On December 28, 2022, Pope Francis asked the world for a "special prayer" for his predecessor, noting that he was "very sick."
Benedict XVI died on the morning of December 31, 2022. His final words, reported by a nurse, were "Lord, I love you."
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The Funeral That Broke Tradition
If you’re wondering what happened to the last pope during his final rites, it was a bit of a hybrid. Because he wasn't the current pope, the Vatican had to tweak the rules.
- The Presider: For the first time, a sitting pope (Francis) presided over the funeral of a former one.
- The Guest List: Only Italy and Germany were invited as official state delegations, though other world leaders came in a "private capacity."
- The Burial: He was laid to rest in the Vatican Grottoes, in the same tomb that once held John Paul II (before his body was moved upstairs for sainthood).
Even in death, Benedict was complicated. His legacy is a mix of brilliant theology and the shadow of the clergy sex abuse scandal that he struggled to contain during his reign. He was a man of the 20th century trying to lead an ancient institution into the 21st, and he eventually realized he didn't have the physical steam to do it.
Why This Matters for the Future
Benedict’s "retirement" wasn't just a personal choice; it was a structural shift. He "desacralized" the papacy. He proved that the office is a job—a heavy, exhausting, administrative burden—and not just a lifelong mystical state.
Now that he has passed, the path is clear for future popes. Pope Francis has already hinted that he might follow suit if his health fails. The idea of a "Pope Emeritus" is no longer a weird anomaly; it's a template.
What You Should Know Now
If you’re following Vatican news or just curious about how this affects the world, keep these points in mind:
- The Title is Real: The "Pope Emeritus" title is now a recognized (though still debated) concept in Canon Law.
- The Residence: The Mater Ecclesiae Monastery has since been returned to its original use as a home for contemplative nuns.
- Historical Record: Benedict’s resignation is now seen as his most revolutionary act, overshadowing much of his actual teaching.
If you want to understand the current state of the Catholic Church, you have to look at the documents Benedict left behind, particularly his encyclicals like Deus Caritas Est. His death marked the true end of an era that began with the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.
To get a better sense of how this transition affected the Church today, you can look into the current health updates regarding Pope Francis or read the "spiritual testament" Benedict wrote before he died, which was released shortly after his passing.