"I would like to ask all of you for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict , who is silently supporting the Church". So Pope Francis this morning at the end of the general audience in the Vatican.
"I would like to remind him - Bergoglio's words - he is very ill , asking the Lord to console him, to support him in this testimony of love for the Church, until the end".
Born on April 16, 1927, Ratzinger is known to have been in very precarious health conditions for some time. Which worsened even in the days leading up to Christmas, when he began to experience "respiratory problems" in particular, according to news agencies from qualified sources. Benedict XVI spent Christmas at the former Mater Ecclesiae monastery where a home Mass was officiated for him in the chapel.
News of a worsening had already arrived in the summer of 2020, when biographer Peter Seewald spoke of a "severe facial infection". In December of the same year, the Maltese cardinal Mario Greich, after visiting him, underlined how Ratzinger had difficulty expressing himself».
Benedict XVI was the 265th pope of the Catholic Church . Having become Pope on 19 April 2005, in the ordinary consistory of 11 February 2013 he announced his intention to renounce the ministry of bishop of Rome.
(Unioneonline/vl)