German politicians and church leaders mourned the death of former Pope Benedict on Saturday, hailing his importance to his homeland as Germany's first pontiff in 1,000 years.
"Today is a day of mourning, of farewell, but for me personally even more one of gratitude and respect for a great man of the Church," said Georg Baetzing, who is bishop of Limburg and head of the German Bishops' Conference.
"Some have said that this was perhaps the greatest act of his life. That he made it clear that the office and the person are not one," Baetzing said. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Twitter that the Catholic Church had lost a formative figure and clever theologian, adding that as a German he had been a special leader of the Church, not just to its members in Germany.