Pope Francis announced on Wednesday that his 95-year-old predecessor Benedict XVI was "seriously ill".

“I would like to ask you all a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict.

To keep his memory alive, because he is seriously ill, to ask the Lord to console and sustain him,” the pope said at the end of his weekly general audience at the Vatican.

Contacted by AFP, the Vatican did not provide further details on the health of Benedict XVI.

The pope emeritus, whose real name is Joseph Ratzinger, resigned from office in 2013 due to failing health and has since lived in a monastery in the heart of the Vatican gardens.

More and more fragile in recent months

After eight years of a pontificate marked by multiple crises, this brilliant German theologian was overtaken at the beginning of 2022 by the drama of pedocrime in the Church.

Questioned by a report in Germany on his management of sexual violence when he was Archbishop of Munich, he broke his silence to ask for “pardon” but assured that he had never covered up a child criminal.

His renunciation, announced in Latin on February 11, 2013, was a personal decision linked to his declining strength and not to the pressure of scandals, had assured the former pope, uncomfortable with crowds, in a book of confidences published in 2016. With this gesture, unprecedented in 700 years, the first German pope in modern history paved the way for his successors whose strength would come to decline.

François, 86 years old and suffering from knee pain, left this possibility “open” himself.


Speaking with difficulty, Benedict XVI has appeared increasingly fragile in recent months, moving around in a wheelchair.

But he still continued to receive visitors in recent weeks, some photos on social networks showing a frail and visibly weakened man.

The latest video of Benedict XVI, released by the Vatican in August on the occasion of the traditional visit of new cardinals, shows a weakened and emaciated man, equipped with a hearing aid, no longer able to speak but with still bright eyes.

World

Pope Francis admits he will have to slow down or 'step aside'

Company

Religion: Ten figures of the Church, including three French, proclaimed "saints" by Pope Francis

  • World

  • Vatican

  • Pope

  • Benedict XVI

  • Church