Vatican City, Vatican.- The health of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has worsened due to his age, and doctors are constantly monitoring the state of health of the 95-year-old retired pontiff, the Vatican reported Wednesday.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Pope Francis, who has asked the faithful to pray for Benedict, went to visit his predecessor at the Vatican monastery where the retired pontiff has lived since he retired in February 2013.
“Regarding the health of the Pope Emeritus, for whom Pope Francis asked for prayers at the end of his general audience this morning, I can confirm that in recent hours there has been a deterioration due to advanced age, Bruni said in a statement.
“The situation at the moment remains under control, constantly monitored by doctors.”
At the end of his usual Wednesday audience with the public in a Vatican auditorium, Francis set aside his previously prepared remarks to say that Benedict was “very ill” and asked the faithful to pray for the retired pontiff.
“I would like to ask everyone for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict, who is silently supporting the church,” Francis said after an hour-long audience.
“Remember him, he is very sick,” Francisco said. “Ask the Lord to console him and sustain him in this testimony of love for the church, until the end.”
Benedict, who was the first pope to resign in 600 years, has grown increasingly fragile in recent years, having devoted his post-papacy life to prayer and meditation.
When Benedict turned 95 in April, his longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, said the retired pontiff was in good spirits, adding that “he is naturally physically relatively weak and frail, but quite lucid.”
Francis visited Benedict at the monastery four months ago. The occasion was the last ceremony in which Francis elevated churchmen to the rank of cardinals, and the new “princes of the Church” joined him in the brief salute.
The Vatican then released a photo showing a very thin Benedict shaking hands with Francis while both Pontiffs smiled at each other.
In his early years of retirement, Benedict attended a couple of cardinalization ceremonies at St. Peter’s Basilica. But in recent years, he was not strong enough to attend the long service.
