Former Pope Benedict, hero to Catholic conservatives, dies

Former Pope Benedict, the first pontiff in 600 years to resign and a standard bearer for conservatives who yearned for a more traditional Church, died on Saturday, ending an extraordinary period in which two men wearing white lived in the Vatican, Qazet.az reports.

Benedict, 95, died in a former monastery where he had lived since his shock resignation in 2013.

In his first comment in public after the death, Pope Francis said the Church and the world had lost a noble, gentle person.

Bells tolled in Rome as news of his death, which followed a rapid decline in his health over Christmas, spread to the faithful on an unusually warm winter's day. Many went to pray in St. Peter's Square on hearing the news.

"Now we will only have one pope. I must say that Pope Ratzinger was a charismatic pope, humble but above all a great theologian," said French tourist Emilie Gaillard, using Benedict's family name.