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Former Pope Benedict XVI died at age 95, Vatican says
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Steph Deschamps / January 1, 2023
Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, whose renunciation in 2013 took the world by surprise, died Saturday at age 95 in the monastery in the Vatican Gardens where he had retired.
“I have the pain to announce that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, died today at 09:34, at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in the Vatican,” announced in a statement the director of the Holy See press office, Matteo Bruni.
The funeral of the former Bavarian pontiff will be held Thursday morning in St. Peter’s Square in Rome under the presidency of Pope Francis, an unprecedented event in the two thousand year history of the Catholic Church.
The health of the German theologian had deteriorated in recent days, but the Vatican had said Friday that his condition was “stationary” and that he had participated in the celebration of Mass in his room on Thursday.
The funeral of the 265th pope is expected to be celebrated by his successor Francis in Rome, an unprecedented event in the two thousand year history of the Catholic Church that could be attended by tens of thousands of people, including heads of state.
His death puts an end to the unusual cohabitation of two men in white: the German Joseph Ratzinger, a brilliant theologian not very comfortable with crowds, and the Argentine Jorge Bergoglio, a Jesuit with an incisive word who wanted to put the poor and migrants at the center of the Church’s mission.
After eight years of pontificate marked by multiple crises, Benedict XVI was caught up in early 2022 by the drama of pedocriminality in the Church. Questioned by a report in Germany on his management of sexual violence when he was Archbishop of Munich, he came out of his silence to ask for “forgiveness” but assured that he had never covered up for a pedocriminal.
His renunciation, announced in Latin on February 11, 2013, was a personal decision linked to his declining strength and not to the pressure of scandals, he had assured in a book of confidences published in 2016.
With this gesture, unprecedented in six centuries, the first German pope in modern history opened the way for his successors whose strength would decline. Francis, 86 years old and suffering from knee pain, has himself left this possibility “open ».
On Wednesday, Pope Francis called for a “special prayer” for his “gravely ill” predecessor and went to his bedside at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in the Vatican gardens.
The Holy See had then confirmed the “aggravation” of the health of the German theologian because of his “advanced age”, specifying that he remained under permanent medical supervision. “It is his vital functions that are failing, including the heart,” a Vatican source told AFP, adding that no hospitalization was planned, as the residence of Benedict XVI has the necessary medical equipment.
Friday afternoon, the Vatican organized a mass at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome to pray for the former pope. Benedict XVI had appeared increasingly frail in recent months, moving in a wheelchair, but he continued to receive visitors. Photos from his last visit, on December 1, showed a frail and visibly weakened man.
Born in 1927, Joseph Ratzinger taught theology for 25 years in Germany before being named Archbishop of Munich. He then became the Church’s strict guardian of dogma for another quarter century in Rome as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and then pope for eight years (2005-2013), succeeding John Paul II.
As head of the Catholic Church, he has defended a conservative line, notably on abortion, homosexuality or euthanasia. His statements have sometimes shocked, as on Islam or the use of condoms against HIV. His pontificate was also marked in 2012 by the leak of confidential documents (“Vatileaks”) orchestrated by his butler. The scandal exposed a Roman Curia (Vatican government) plagued by intrigue and lacking in financial rigor. The last video of Benedict XVI, released by the Vatican in August, showed a thin man with a hearing aid who could no longer speak but still had a lively gaze.
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Eva Deschamps / June 1, 2023
The three astronauts’ stay is scheduled to last six months, and marks a new stage in the progress of Beijing’s space program.
On Tuesday May 30, China sent three new astronauts to its Tiangong space station, including for the first time a civilian. This is a valuable experience for the Asian giant, which has reaffirmed its desire to send a Chinese astronaut to the Moon by 2030, a major objective of a space program that has been progressing steadily for several decades.
The trio on the Shenzhou-16 mission lifted off aboard a Long March 2F rocket at 9:31 a.m. local time from the Jiuquan launch center in the Gobi Desert, according to AFP reporters on site. The launch was a “total success” and the “astronauts are in good shape”, said Zou Lipeng, director of the launch center.
Mission commander, veteran engineer Jing Haipeng, on his fourth space flight, is accompanied by engineer Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao, a professor and the first Chinese civilian in space. A specialist in space science and engineering, Haichao will be in charge of experiments on the station. He does not come from the armed forces, as has always been the case until now. Their stay in Tiangong (“Heavenly Palace” in Chinese) is scheduled to last six months.
World News
The big announcement tonight: North Korea confirms launch of military spy satellite in June
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Sylvie Claire / June 1, 2023
North Korea confirmed on Tuesday that it will launch a military spy satellite in June, in order to “confront dangerous US military actions”, according to the official KCNA agency.
The “military reconnaissance satellite number 1” will be “launched in June”, in order to “confront the dangerous military actions of the United States and its vassals”, according to Ri Pyong Chol, vice-chairman of the ruling party’s Central Military Commission, quoted by KCNA.
On Monday, Japan announced that it had been informed by North Korea of a forthcoming satellite launch, a project which the Japanese government believed to conceal a ballistic missile launch.
According to Tokyo, Pyongyang has told the Japanese coastguard that a rocket will be launched between May 31 and June 11, and is expected to land in an area near the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and east of Luzon Island in the Philippines.
North Korea has already tested ballistic missiles in 2012 and 2016, which it described as satellite launches and which flew over the island department of Okinawa in southern Japan.
The development of a reconnaissance satellite was one of Pyongyang’s key defense projects unveiled last year by Kim Jong Un.
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Steph Deschamps / June 1, 2023
On Tuesday, China will send a civilian astronaut into space for the first time in its history on a manned mission to the Tiangong space station, the China Human Spaceflight Agency announced.
This astronaut, Gui Haichao, a “payload specialist”, is “a professor at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics”, Lin Xiqiang, spokesman for the space agency, told a press conference on Monday.
Until now, all Chinese astronauts who have launched into space have been members of the People’s Liberation Army.
Mr. Gui will be “mainly responsible for in-orbit management of payloads” dedicated to space science experiments, the spokesman said.
The civilian astronaut will orbit alongside Shenzhou-16 mission commander Jing Haipeng and astronaut Zhu Yangzhu.
The crew is due to take off from the Jiuquan launch base in northwest China at 09:31 local time, according to the space agency.
Projects linked to China’s “space dream” are multiplying under the presidency of Xi Jinping.
The Asian giant has been investing billions of euros in its military-led space program for several decades, enabling it to make up most of the ground lost to the Americans and Russians.
China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, and its Tiangong (“Celestial Palace”) space station has been fully operational since late 2022. In 2019, a Chinese spacecraft landed on the far side of the Moon. Then, in 2021, China landed a small robot on the surface of Mars. China plans to send its first crew to the Moon by 2029.
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