‘Deep sorrow’: World leaders and religious heads pay tribute to late Pope Benedict XVI

Political and religious leaders around the world have sent their condolences and expressed grief over the death of former Pope Benedict, who died on December 31, 2022, aged 95. The German pope emeritus was the first leader of the Catholic Church to apologise for scandals involving clerical paedophilia, and the first in six centuries to voluntarily step down as the head of the church.