Pope Benedict XVI dies in Vatican City hours before New Year's Eve

Pope Benedict XVI, regarded by many as a champion of conventional Catholic values, died Saturday morning in Vatican City, Rome, according to the Vatican and multiple reports.  

Benedict XVI, who was 95 at the time of his death was the first pontiff in 600 years to abdicate the papacy, a move he decided upon after expressing his concern about the church straying from conservative Catholic values. He passed away at 9:34 a.m. Rome time in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery of Vatican City, where he lived in the decade after he stepped down in 2013, according to the Vatican.

Starting Jan. 2, the Pope will now lie in state at Saint Peter’s Basilica, and Pope Francis will preside over a public funeral service in St. Peter’s Square on Jan. 5.

Benedict XVI recently became public and Pope Francis called for “prayers” earlier in the week from Vatican City.

“I want to ask you all for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict who sustains the Church in his silence. He is very sick,” Pope Francis told a general audience, adding that the reasons were “due to advancing age.”

“We ask the Lord to console and sustain him in this witness of love for the Church to the very end,” Francis said. 

Benedict XVI, who was born April 16, 1927 in Bavaria, Germany as Joseph Ratzinger on 16 April was the successor to  Pope John Paul II in 2005. 

He was highly regarded for his strict views on Catholicism and was even the subject of a world renowned film, “The Two Popes” about his differences with the more progressive Pope Francis.

He was the first German pope in a millennium and served for eight years from 2005-2013.