Benedict XVI in 2013, when he was only 85 years old.
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GALAZKA / SIPA
The oldest pope, or almost.
At the venerable age of 93 years and soon five months, the German Benedict XVI became this Friday the oldest pope in history, but with the unusual status of "emeritus pope", making this record questionable since he has relinquished his post in 2013.
He was then the first pope to resign in seven centuries, after eight years of a pontificate undermined by a deep crisis, as he approached his 86 years.
Leaving his chair to the Argentinian Jorge Bergoglio, ten years younger, who became the new and only reigning Pope, taking the name of "Francis" without Roman numerals.
A record that divides
Born April 16, 1927, Benedict XVI dethroned the Italian Leo XIII on Friday, who died at the age of 93 in 1903, according to calculations by the Italian episcopate newspaper
Avvenire
and the magazine
Famiglia Cristiana
.
“34,111 days at the service of God, the world and the ecclesial community,” explains
Famiglia Cristiana
.
The Bavarian Josef Ratzinger, with his status as retired pope, can he still be part of such rankings ?, nonetheless wondered this Friday other Vaticanists.
The age record of Benedict XVI is also to be put into perspective for another reason: experts point out that the age of the popes is not really reliable beyond 1,400 years ago.
The previous record holder, Leo XIII, an Italian aristocrat who was born on March 2, 1810, is best known for having written the first encyclical devoted to social problems.
Unlike the short pontificate of Benedict XVI, the Italian had led the Catholic Church for more than 25 years, arriving as such in third place behind Pius IX (1846-1878, i.e. 31 years) and John Paul II (1978- 2005, i.e. 26 years).
An increasingly weakened “emeritus” pope
The “emeritus” pope, reclusive in a Vatican monastery with his private secretary and attentive nuns, often in wheelchairs to get around, appears increasingly weakened during his appearances.
The author of a hundred books, however, is not intellectually diminished, regularly assert his relatives.
Despite his very limited mobility, he went to Bavaria in June 2020 to the bedside of his very ill 96-year-old brother, Georg, to whom he was very close, who died about ten days after his visit on July 1.
Both had been ordained priests on the same day, in June 1951.
It was on his way to his native Bavaria - his first trip abroad since his renunciation - that Benedict XVI saw the first signs of painful shingles on his face.
"The pains manifested themselves after the death of the brother," his faithful German private secretary, Mgr Georg Gänswein, told the German press a month ago, specifying that the disease was diminishing.
Since then, no official information has filtered out on the evolution of his disease and his health.
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