By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The Diocese of Bacolod held a requiem mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at the San Sebastian Cathedral yesterday afternoon.

Fr. Chris Gonzales, head of the diocese’s Social Action Center, said holding the mass is their solemn honor and respect to the retired pope.

Despite serving as head of the Catholic Church from 2005 to 2013, the pope still made a lot of contributions to the church, Gonzales said.

Benedict XVI, also known as Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, was a native of Bavaria, Germany.

He became a priest in 1951, and was appointed archbishop of Munich and Freising in Germany in 1977.

In 1981, St. Pope John Paul II named Ratzinger as the church’s Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Following John Paul II’s death in 2005, Ratzinger was elected as pope. He chose the name Benedict XVI in honor of Pope Benedict XV and St. Benedict of Nursia, an Italian Christian monk.

Benedict XVI later retired on February 11, 2013, as a result of his advanced age, becoming the first head of the Catholic Church to resign since Pope Gregory XII in 1415.

He was succeeded by Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who later took the name Pope Francis a month later./DGB, WDJ