Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s health has deteriorated due to his age and doctors are constantly monitoring the 95-year-old’s condition, the Vatican said.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Pope Francis, who on Wednesday asked the faithful to pray for Benedict, went to visit his predecessor at the Vatican monastery where the retired pontiff has been living since retirement. in February 2013.
let us #PrayTogether for Pope Emeritus Benedict who supports the Church in silence. Let us ask the Lord to console him and support him in this testimony of love for the Church, to the end.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) December 28, 2022
“Regarding the state of health of the pope emeritus, for whom Pope Francis asked for prayers at the end of his general audience this morning, I can confirm that during the last hours a worsening due to advanced age has occurred,” Bruni said in a written statement.
“The situation at the moment remains under control, constantly monitored by doctors,” the statement said.
Pope Francis said earlier that his predecessor was “very ill” and he asked the faithful to pray for the retired pontiff that God would comfort him “until the end”.
Pope Francis did not immediately give details of the condition of Benedict XVI, who was the first pope to retire in 600 years, but the Vatican later confirmed his “deteriorating” health.
Benedict has grown increasingly frail in recent years as he dedicated his life after the papacy to prayer and meditation.
“I would like to ask you all a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict, who silently supports the church,” Pope Francis said.
“Remember him – he is very ill – asking the Lord to comfort him and sustain him in this testimony of love for the church, until the end.”
When Benedict turned 95 in April, his longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, said the retired pontiff was in good spirits, adding that “naturally he is physically relatively weak and frail, but rather clearheaded “.
In one of his previously announced visits, Pope Francis visited Benedict at the monastery four months ago. This occasion was Pope Francis’ last ceremony elevating clergymen to the rank of cardinal, and the new “princes of the church” accompanied him to the monastery for the brief salutation.
The Vatican released a photo at the time that showed a very skinny Benedict shaking hands with Francis as the current and former pontiff smiled at each other.
During his early years of retirement, Benedict attended a few cardinal elevation ceremonies in St. Peter’s Basilica. But in recent years, he was not strong enough to attend the long service.
He was elevated to the rank of cardinal in 1977 by the then pontiff, Paul VI. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the German prelate and theologian has long been the Vatican’s Orthodox doctrinal watchdog. He was elected pontiff in 2005.
In Benedict XVI’s native Germany, the head of the country’s bishops’ conference, Limburg bishop Georg Baetzing, joined Francis’ call to prayer.
“My thoughts are with the pope emeritus,” Archbishop Baetzing told German news agency dpa. “I call on the faithful in Germany to pray for Benedict XVI.”
In Berlin, Chancellor Olaf Scholz “wishes the German pope, as they say, a good recovery and his thoughts are with him,” government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said at a regular government press conference.
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