Retired Pope Benedict XVI has said he hopes to soon join a beloved professor friend in “the afterlife,” in a sign that the 94-year-old pontiff is not only accepting his eventual death but welcoming it.

Pope Francis praised his predecessor's courage in denouncing the danger of people no longer respecting or understanding the sacredness of human life in the introduction to a new book.

I know what you’re thinking. Joseph Ratzinger would have made an amazing host of “Jeopardy!” I don’t disagree.

“I never imagined that Pope Francis would go back that strongly to what Vatican II said and uphold it.”

“As long as only the ministry, but not the heart and the spirit, speak in official church texts, the exodus from the world of faith will continue,” he wrote.

Pope Francis congratulated retired Pope Benedict XVI on the 70th anniversary of his priestly ordination.