Benedict XVI news: Vatican gives update on former Pope’s condition

Pope Francis on Wednesday revealed that Pope Benedict was “very ill” and went to see him at his dwelling within the Vatican the place he has lived since retiring in 2013, sparking fears that he was close to loss of life.

The Vatican later stated Benedict’s well being had deteriorated in latest hours, however that the scenario was below management as docs monitored him.

Benedict in 2013 turned the primary pope in 600 years to resign, and he selected to dwell out his retirement in seclusion in a transformed monastery within the Vatican Gardens.

Few had anticipated his retirement — now in its tenth yr — to last more than his eight-year reign as pope.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni stated yesterday that Benedict “managed to rest well last night, is absolutely lucid and alert and today, while his condition remains grave, the situation at the moment is stable.”

“Pope Francis renews the invitation to pray for him and accompany him in these difficult hours,” he stated.

Word of Pope Benedict’s declining well being instantly posed questions on what would occur when he dies, given the unprecedented actuality of getting a reigning pope presumably presiding over the funeral of a former pope.

Most Vatican specialists anticipate any funeral would resemble that for any retired bishop of Rome, albeit with the caveat that there could be official delegations to honor a former head of state, in addition to pilgrims from Germany — homeland of Benedict, the former Joseph Ratzinger — and past.

Otherwise, whereas the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano headlined its yesterday’s editions with information of Benedict’s well being, life continued as regular within the tiny city-state that Benedict and Pope Francis name dwelling.

Francis had a seemingly routine day of audiences yesterday, assembly together with his ambassador to Madagascar, the commander of the Swiss Guards and a fellow Jesuit.

In the sq., the road of vacationers ready to get into St Peter’s Basilica wrapped virtually solely across the piazza, with {couples} and households stopping to pose for selfies in entrance of the life-sized Nativity scene and Christmas tree arrange within the sq..

Bishops in Germany requested for prayers and a few of the trustworthy headed to the Chapel of Grace on the city sq. in Altoetting, a significant pilgrimage vacation spot a couple of miles from Benedict’s hometown of Marktl am Inn that he visited many occasions in his life.

“I know that he has been preparing for his coming home in the eternal world,” stated Herbert Hofauer, the retired mayor of the deeply Catholic city who stated he noticed Benedict final within the spring.

“I believe that he is very calmly looking forward to this encounter.”

At the St Oswald church in Marktl, the place Benedict was baptized, lay head of the native congregation Sandra Maier put up a framed image of the former pope and organized a small pew so parishioners may kneel and pray for him.

Ms Maier stated she was “shaken and deeply moved by the news” on Benedict’s well being.

“I wish for him to have an easy time now and not suffer so much,” she stated.

“We are proud here in Marktl that we have a Bavarian pope,” Ms Maier, 50, stated, recalling the 2 occasions she met him personally.

“He’s a good man and was a great pope.”

While St Peter’s Square within the Vatican was largely crammed with guests from overseas yesterday — throughout peak Christmas vacationer season — some Italians had been out to pay their respects or a minimum of supply a prayer.

“Obviously it is a bad situation, we are all close to Pope Ratzinger, we are sad about the situation, so we came here to make our small contribution,” stated one pilgrim, Giorgio Gibin.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is lucid, alert and secure however his condition stays severe, the Vatican stated yesterday, a day after it revealed that the 95-year-old’s well being had deteriorated lately.

An announcement from Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni stated Pope Francis requested for continued prayers “to accompany him in these difficult hours.”

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI shared a “great affinity” with the late Queen, the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster has stated.

The 95-year-old former pope’s historic choice to resign as a result of age in 2013 will stay “an exception”, and he admired the Queen for persevering with her royal duties till the tip, in accordance with Cardinal Vincent Nichols.

His feedback got here after the Vatican stated the former pope’s well being has worsened as a result of his age, and docs are continuously monitoring his condition.

Catholic church leaders from Germany, Italy and the United States have joined in Pope Francis’s name to hope for former Pope Benedict’s well being.

German cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Municht, instructed churchgoers on Wednesday: “This morning I received the news that there is great concern in Rome about the health of the Pope Emeritus. And so we especially want to include him in our prayers.”

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, head of Italy’s bishops convention, requested Italians to maintain Benedict of their ideas “in this moment of suffering and trial”.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, stated in a press release: “With great faith in God’s goodness, I join with Pope Francis in praying for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, and ask the Catholic faithful of the Archdiocese of New York, and all people of good will go do the same.”

Former Pope Benedict presently lives within the Vatican, following his resignation from the place in 2013.

But what has Pope Francis stated about his retirement?

The 85-year-old pontiff stated in July that he wouldn’t dwell within the Vatican, or return to his home-country Argentina, if he retired. He stated he would favor to discover a church in Rome the place he may proceed listening to confessions.

He stated he was not planning on retiring quickly however stated that “the door is open”.

Speaking in regards to the function Benedict nonetheless performs, Francis stated that having him on-hand has gone nicely however that the Vatican would wish to raised regulate the function of emeritus pope sooner or later.

There has been some inside criticism in regards to the decisions made by Benedict in his retirement, comparable to his choice to nonetheless put on the white cassock of the papacy and his refusal to revert again to his delivery title, Joseph Ratzinger.

Francis stated that Benedict was a “saintly and discreet man”, however added: “In the future, things should be delineated more, or things should be made more explicit. I think for having taken the first step after so many centuries, he gets 10 points. It’s a marvel.”

19 April 2005 – German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the pinnacle of the Vatican’s doctrinal workplace, is elected to succeed Pope John Paul II because the 265th chief of the Roman Catholic Church. He chooses the title Benedict XVI.

9-14 September 2006 – The Pope visits his Bavarian homeland. He sparks protests from the Muslim world with a speech quoting a 14th century Byzantine emperor who stated Islam had solely introduced evil to the world and was unfold by the sword.

Days later, Benedict says he was “deeply sorry” about Muslim response to his speech, which he says was misunderstood.

28 November – 1 December 2006 – Papal journey to Turkey is a fence-mending go to together with prayers with Istanbul’s grand mufti dealing with Mecca on the metropolis’s Blue Mosque.

7 July 2007 – Pope points a declaration permitting the outdated Latin Mass to be celebrated extra broadly, a requirement of church traditionalists.

5 February 2008 – Pope adjustments a Latin prayer for Good Friday companies by traditionalist Catholics, deleting a reference to Jews and their “blindness” however nonetheless calling for them to simply accept Jesus.

24 January 2009 – Pope causes uproar by lifting excommunications of 4 ultra-traditionalist bishops, together with a Holocaust denier.

6 November 2010 – Benedict arrives in Spain for a two-day go to. He assaults abortion and homosexual marriage, lately legalised in Spain, in a Mass to consecrate Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia church in one other pointed criticism of what he referred to as Spain’s “aggressive secularism”.

25 July 2011 – The Vatican remembers its ambassador to Ireland following an unprecedented rebuke of the Holy See by the Irish parliament within the wake of a report that accused church authorities of overlaying up sexual abuse.

2012 – Through the yr, Benedict’s papacy is shaken by a scandal dubbed “Vatileaks” by which leaked paperwork present infighting amongst Benedict’s aides and normal dysfunction on the coronary heart of the Church’s central administration, often called the Curia.

The scandal uncovered monetary corruption and allegations in regards to the existence of a so-called “gay lobby” that used blackmail to guard its members.

6 October 2012 – A Vatican court docket finds Benedict’s former butler responsible of stealing delicate paperwork and sentences him to a yr and a half in jail.

Paolo Gabriele stated he had acted out of “visceral” love for the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope. Benedict later pardoned Gabriele and the Vatican later discovered him a job in a hospital. Gabriele died in 2020.

11 Febuary 2013 – Benedict proclaims his intention to resign, saying he now not has the bodily and psychological energy to run the Church. The shock announcement shocks a gathering of cardinals.

28 February 2013 – Benedict formally steps down, transferring quickly to the papal summer time residence south of Rome, and later transferring to a former convent contained in the Vatican gardens, together with his secretary, Archbishop Georg Ganswein, and different aides and medical workers.

20 January 2022 – An impartial report in Germany alleges Benedict did not act in opposition to 4 instances of sexual abuse in his archdiocese when he was Archbishop of Munich between 1977 and 1982. Benedict later acknowledges errors occurred and asks for forgiveness.

28 December 2022 – His successor, Pope Francis, requires prayers for the former pontiff saying Benedict is “very sick”.