‘Deteriorating’: Former pontiff Benedict XVI ‘very ill’, Pope Francis says

The Vatican has provided an update on former Pope Benedict’s health after it was revealed he is “very ill” and urged people to pray for him.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI pictured at a papal consistory for the creation of new Cardinals at St. Peter's basilica in Vatican. in 2015. Andreas Solaro / AFP.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is “lucid and vigilant” but his condition remains serious, the Vatican has revealed in an update on the former pontiff’s health.

“He is absolutely lucid and vigilant and today while his condition remains serious, the situation at the moment is stable,” Vatican press office director Matteo Bruni said in a statement on Thursday.

“Pope Francis renews his invitation to pray for him and accompany him in these difficult hours.”

The update comes one day after Francis confirmed that Benedict, 95, is “very ill”, and urged people to pray for him before going to be by his side.

Benedict, who in 2013 became the first pontiff to resign in six centuries, has been in increasingly frail health.

“I would like to ask all of you to pray a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict,” Francis said about his predecessor at the end of his general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI pictured at a papal consistory for the creation of new Cardinals at St. Peter's basilica in Vatican. in 2015. Andreas Solaro / AFP.

Pope Benedict XVI pictured in 2008.

“Remember him, because he is very ill, asking the Lord to console and support him.” A

short while later, the Vatican confirmed Benedict’s health has worsened “in the last few hours” and said Francis visited him after his audience.

“In the last few hours there has been a deterioration due to advancing age,” spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement.

“The situation at the moment remains under control, monitored continually by doctors.”

Benedict had cited his declining physical and mental health back in 2013 in his decision to become the first pope since 1415 to stand down as head of the worldwide Catholic Church.

The pope emeritus, whose real name is Joseph Ratzinger, has since lived a quiet life in a former convent inside the Vatican and largely withdrawn from public view. He was last seen in public about a month ago.

His resignation created an unprecedented situation in which two popes — Benedict and Francis — have co-existed within the walls of the tiny city state ever since.

‘WEAK AND FRAGILE’

Francis was the first German pope for 1,000 years.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz “wishes the pope emeritus a good recovery and sends his thoughts to him”, government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann told a press briefing.

In 2018, in a letter sent to Italy’s Corriere della Sera daily, Benedict said that he was “moved that so many readers want to know how I spend my days in this, the last period of the life”.

“I can only say that with the slow withering of my physical forces, I am on an interior pilgrimage towards home,” he said.

Maltese Cardinal Mario Grech said in 2020 that Benedict “has difficulty in expressing himself”.

The ex-pope, who uses a wheelchair, said “the Lord has taken away my speech in order to let me appreciate silence”, Grech told Vatican News.

In April, Benedict’s long-time secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, told Vatican News the ex-pope was “physically relatively weak and fragile”, but “in good spirits”.

Pope Francis (left) said that former pontiff Benedict XVI, 95, (right) is "very ill". Picture: AFP.

Pope Benedict XVI pictured at the Jose Marta­ international airport in Havana, Cuba in 2012. Picture: Alberto PizzoliI/ AFP.

Benedict was 78 when he succeeded the long-reigning and popular John Paul II in April 2005.

The resignation created an unprecedented situation in which two “men in white” – Benedict and his successor, Pope Francis – have coexisted within the walls of the tiny city state.

His papacy was beset by Church infighting and the outcry over paedophilia. He became the first pontiff to apologise for scandals over clerical sex abuse of children that emerged around the world, expressing “deep remorse” and meeting with victims in person.

But while he took key steps to tackling the issue, he was criticised for failing to end Church cover-ups.

The paedophilia scandal has returned to haunt him in retirement.

A damning independent report for the German church in January 2022 found the former pope had failed to act in four cases of sexual assault when he served as the archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982. He later apologised for the handling of the cases, but denied any wrongdoing and the Vatican has strongly defended his record.

Francis, 86, has faced his own health problems in recent years. He underwent colon surgery in 2021 and has been using a wheelchair since May. Earlier this month, he told an interviewer that he had written a letter of resignation in the first year of his reign, in case he should become incapable of fulfilling his duties.

- With AFP

Originally published as ‘Deteriorating’: Former pontiff Benedict XVI ‘very ill’, Pope Francis says