Nearly ten years after stepping down due to declining health, the former Pope Benedict XVI passed away at age 95 in his home at the Vatican. On the morning of December 31, he passed away. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passed away at 9:34 at the Vatican's Mater Ecclesia Monastery, according to a statement from spokesperson Matteo Bruni. After less than eight years in office, Pope Benedict XVI resigned in 2013, becoming the first pope to do so since Gregory XII in 1415. At the Mater Ecclesiae monastery inside the Vatican's gates, Benedict spent his final years.
