By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) —The Vatican announced Saturday that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, had died at age 95.

Benedict was a reluctant pope who never wanted to be pontiff.

So it should have come as little surprise that with a few words uttered in Latin on a Vatican holiday in 2013, Benedict ended it all.

He announced that he would become the first pope in 600 years to resign.

His dramatic exit paved the way for Pope Francis’ election and created the unprecedented arrangement of two popes, living side-by-side in the Vatican gardens.

And it likely won’t be a one-off, given that Francis himself has said Benedict “opened the door” for other popes to follow suit.

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