VATICAN CITY – Ex-pope Benedict XVI’s situation stays steady, the Vatican stated Friday, as Catholics prayed for the 95-year outdated former pontiff whose well being has critically deteriorated.
The German, who in 2013 was the primary pope because the Middle Ages to resign as head of the worldwide Catholic Church, has change into more and more frail through the years.
Pope Francis stated Wednesday his predecessor, whose start title is Joseph Ratzinger, was “very ill”.
On Friday, the Vatican stated his situation was “stable,” including that Benedict had rested effectively in a single day and brought half in a mass held in his bed room.
Benedict moved out of the papal palace and right into a former convent inside the Vatican when he retired.
Francis referred to as Wednesday for folks to hope for him, earlier than visiting him on the Mater Ecclesiae monastery.
The Vatican later confirmed the ex-pope’s well being had worsened “due to advancing age”, whereas a Vatican supply informed AFP it had begun deteriorating “about three days ago.
“It is his important capabilities which can be failing, together with his coronary heart,” the source said, adding that no hospital admission was planned, as he has the “mandatory medical gear” at home.
The Rome diocese celebrated a special mass for Benedict at the Basilica of St. John Lateran Friday. In his homily, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis said as “priest, theologian, bishop, pope”, Benedict “expressed on the identical time, the energy and the sweetness of religion.”
‘Gratitude’
In Germany, in the church of St Oswald in Marktl am Inn, where the former pope was baptized, a photo of Benedict was set up on a tripod next to a baptistery.
Photos from his 2006 trip to the town line the walls. A red candle burns on the floor, of the white building, which is topped by a black bell tower.
One visitor, Tobias Ferstl, 43, prayed with his eyes closed for several minutes in front of the photograph of Benedict.
“I used to be passing by way of, so I made a decision to cease by the birthplace of the Pope Emeritus,” the devout Catholic, an altar server at Regensburg Cathedral, told AFP.
“I do not really feel any nice unhappiness or astonishment, however relatively gratitude,” he said, despite a few tears filling his eyes. Benedict was “a delicate particular person”, he said.
At Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican, tourists and pilgrims taking selfies in front of the Christmas tree and nativity scene contrasted with the few journalists on standby in case of a death announcement.
“He was an important pope,” Italian Carmelo Dellisanti told AFP. “Perhaps misunderstood by some within the Catholic world, however he served the Church. He produced extraordinary homilies and writings.”
‘A difficult time’
Benedict was 78 when he succeeded the long-reigning and popular John Paul II in April 2005.
His eight-year pontificate was marked by multiple crises, including the global clerical sex abuse scandal, which has dogged him in retirement as well.
A damning report for the German church in January 2022 accused him of personally having failed to stop four predatory priests in the 1980s, when he was archbishop of Munich.
Benedict has denied wrongdoing, but in a letter released after the report, asked “for forgiveness”.
“I feel he had a tough time as pope, due to the pedophilia scandal, and he by no means actually needed to be pope, so it could be good if he went to heaven,” stated 30-year outdated German Annika Hafner.
Benedict has appeared more and more frail in current months, utilizing a wheelchair, however was nonetheless receiving guests. He seems frail in images taken on December 1.
The final public video of him, launched by the Vatican in August, exhibits a skinny man with a listening to assist who can not communicate, however whose eyes are nonetheless shiny. — Agence France-Presse
