Vatican City The Vatican confirmed today that the Pope’s health had deteriorated in the past few hours. Benedict XVI95 years old, “due to old age”, but the doctors said “the situation is still under control for now”.
“I can confirm that the health of the pontiff, for whom Pope Francis prayed at the end of the general audience this morning, has been deteriorating due to age in the last few hours,” he said. Matteo Bruni, Director of the Vatican Press Office.
“The situation is currently under control and is being monitored by doctors“, he added.
At the end of this Wednesday’s general audience, Pope Francis went to the monastery where the pope lives to meet him, Bruni explained in a brief note.
Meanwhile, from the protected and hermetic convent Mother of the ChurchIn the Vatican gardens, Benedict XVI has lived in seclusion since 2013, after his resignation, and no information has been released.
“I ask for a special prayer for Pope Benedict XVI, who is silently supporting the Church, and I ask God, remembering that he was very ill, to comfort him and to support him in this witness of love for the Church until the end”said the Argentine pontiff during a general audience.
The last photo of the emeritus was released by the Joseph Ratzinger Foundation on December 1, when the Pope Emeritus received two Ratzinger Prize winners, the French biblical scholar Michel Fedot and the Jewish judge Joseph Weiler, at his residence.
As in the last pictures, Benedict is seen sitting on the sofa next to his faithful secretary, George Conswein, and he appears very thin, but attentive to the conversation.
Everyone who has met him in recent months assures Ratzinger that he speaks in a small voice, that he does not walk and is very fragile, but that he is completely lucid.
In other recent photos, he was spotted sunbathing in a wheelchair in the Vatican gardens, something common according to his close circle, as the pontiff emeritus remains disciplined despite his age.
He celebrates Mass at 7:30 a.m. and then listens to music on his sofa, sometimes receiving visitors.
Last August, along with Pope Francis, he received new cardinals who came to visit him.
Apart from having to deal with allegations earlier in the year about how he handled some cases of priests accused of abusing minors while he was archbishop of Munich, he has been quiet in recent months. Statement by the German Church on Pedophilia.
In a historic public address, Benedict XVI said: “I had a great responsibility in the Catholic Church. I am very sorry for the abuses and mistakes that happened during my tenure in the respective places.
At the beginning of the 15th century, Benedict XVI, the first pope to abdicate since Gregory XII, rarely left the walls of Lyon. Once met his inseparable brother in hospital, when he went to Regensburg to visit him a few weeks before his death in June 2020.
