Pope Francis greeting Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at the Vatican in 2017 (Picture: AFP via Getty)

Pope Francis has paid tribute to Benedict XVI, calling his late predecessor a noble, kind man who was a gift to the Church and the world.

Francis spoke in the homily of a previously planned New Year’s Eve vespers of thanksgiving in St Peter’s Basilica, where the pope emeritus’s body will be displayed next week.

He said: ‘It is with emotion that we remember his person, so noble, so kind. And we feel in our heart such gratitude, gratitude to God for having gifted him to the Church and the world.’

Benedict, 95, died on Saturday morning in the Vatican after his health suddenly deteriorated over Christmas.

He was elected following the death of St John Paul II in 2005 and ruled for eight years until 2013, when he shocked the world by becoming the first pontiff in 600 years to resign.

His dramatic decision paved the way for the conclave that elected Jorge Mario Bergoglio as his successor, who took the name Francis.

The two popes then lived side-by-side in the Vatican gardens, an unprecedented arrangement that sparked calls for the Vatican to develop rules and regulations to guide future pontiffs who might follow in his footsteps and quit.

The two popes pictured earlier this year (Picture: Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images)

Even Francis weighed in, saying a decade into Benedict’s experiment that regulations would be needed in the future.

Things had worked out well enough in Benedict’s case because he was ‘saintly and discreet’, he added.

The Jesuit pope, for the record, said that if he were to retire, he would be known as the ‘bishop emeritus of Rome’, not ‘pope emeritus’, and would live somewhere in Rome, not the Vatican or his native Argentina.

But Francis couldn’t craft any protocols governing a future retired pope while Benedict was still alive, creating a situation of uncertainty and unease about the status quo that particularly riled Benedict’s firmest supporters.

Now that Benedict has died, the Vatican might be in a better position to draft such regulations.

Francis will celebrate Benedict’s funeral Mass on Thursday (Picure: PA)

Francis will celebrate Benedict’s funeral Mass on Thursday, the first time in the modern age that a current pope will eulogise a retired one.

To underscore that this is no papal funeral, however, the Vatican invited only Italy and Germany to send official delegations, with any other leaders wanting to attend to do so ‘in their private capacity’, according to a diplomatic note.

Tributes have poured in from political and religious leaders around the world.

King Charles III says he received the news of Benedict XVI’s death ‘with deep sadness’, saying he fondly remembers meeting with the former pontiff during a visit to the Vatican in 2009.

‘I also recall his constant efforts to promote peace and goodwill to all people, and to strengthen the relationship between the global Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church,’ Charles said in a message to Pope Francis on Saturday.

Charles is the supreme governor of the Church of England.

Prince Philip looks on as Queen Elizabeth II talks with Pope Benedict XVI during an audience in the Morning Drawing Room at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh (Picture: PA)

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel is paying tribute to the late pope as ‘one of the most combative and significant religious thinkers of our time’.

Merkel, the daughter of a Protestant pastor, led Germany for most of Benedict’s reign as pope. She said in a statement that she felt ‘great sorrow’ at his death.

She pointed to Benedict’s interest in relations with Orthodox Christians and in dialog with Jews and Muslims.

Merkel recalled a speech Benedict made to the German parliament in 2011 and his ‘historic’ decision in 2013 to resign.

She said that ‘with this decision, he sent a signal that even the pope had to grapple with the burdens of age’.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that he will attend Benedict’s funeral on Thursday.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella said the death of the pope emeritus is a cause for grief for the entire country.

Mattarella said that ‘his sweetness and his wisdom had benefited our community and the entire international community’.

He added in a statement that Benedict ‘continued to serve the cause of his Church in his unique role of pope emeritus with humility and serenity’.

The president said that Benedict ‘interpreted with finesse the reasons of dialogue, of peace, of the dignity of the person, as well as the supreme interests of religions’.

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‘It is with emotion that we remember his person, so noble, so kind.’