Pope Benedict XVI: Irish Catholic leader praises former pontiff's 'humility'

Former Pope Benedict XVI will be remembered for his humility, the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland has said

Archbishop Eamon Martin was speaking following the death of the former pontiff on Saturday.

Benedict led the Catholic Church for less than eight years until he became the first Pope to resign since 1415.

On Wednesday, his successor Pope Francis appealed for prayers for the former pope, whom he said was very ill.

The Catholic Church in Ireland said a book of condolence will open in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh.

Reflecting on the former pontiff’s legacy across Ireland, Archbishop Martin told BBC News NI: “I just noticed over the last few days on social media, quite a range of views.

“Mostly people who respect him as somebody who was quite humble, even though the way he was often portrayed in the media was as somebody very strong and stern and severe.

“But when I met him myself, I actually found him to be a very calm and softly spoken.”

He added that Benedict would be remembered as “an amazingly gifted teacher, an academic with great intellectual abilities but also someone who didn’t reduce faith to any kind of academia”.

During much of Pope Benedict’s papacy, the church faced allegations of abuse in Ireland and elsewhere across the world.

In 2010, he issued a letter apologising to victims of child sex abuse by Catholic priests in Ireland where he acknowledged the sense of betrayal in the Church felt by victims and their families.

Two years later, a year before Pope Benedict stood down, a Vatican report into child abuse within the church in Ireland said “painful events” had “opened many wounds within the Irish Catholic community”.

Archbishop Martin said: “In many ways [the abuse scandal] marked his papacy, that period of eight years where he really led the church in confronting the reality of abuse in our history.”

Irish president Michael D Higgins said the former pontiff had a “steadfast interest in peace in Northern Ireland”.

“He will be remembered too for the value he attached to intellectual work and for the personal commitment he gave to such within the Roman Catholic Church, this work being respected by both supporters and critics,” he added.

The leader of the Church of Ireland also expressed sympathies, describing the former pope as “manifestly a man of deep spiritual insight”.

Archbishop John McDowell said Pope Benedict “combined the role of churchman and theologian with energy, leaving as a legacy a substantive body of published work that stands testament to a Christian scholar of great intelligence and learning”.