FOG BLOG VATICAN NEWS LOG: POPE FRANCIS VISITS POPE EMERITUS BENEDICT XVI, BENEDICT 'VERY SICK'!
Retired Pope Benedict XVI, 95, is ‘very sick’; Francis asks for prayers VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis said his predecessor, Benedict XVI, was “very sick,” and the Vatican said the 95-year-old’s health had “worsened,” putting the Catholic Church on watch about one of its most towering conservative figures. “I ask to all of you for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict,” Francis told pilgrims at his general audience Wednesday, asking God to console and sustain Benedict “until the end.”
The Vatican, in its statement, said the situation “at the moment remains under control, and is constantly followed by the doctors.”
The comments appeared to mark a worrying turning point for Benedict, who has been frail but sharp-minded for years and who has now been a former pope for a longer period than he served as pope.
One close friend to Benedict, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about a delicate subject, said the retired pontiff had become weaker since before Christmas but did not have information about his health in the most recent hours.
“Of course, time is not on his side,” the friend said. “Some concerns are surely there.”
After Francis’s general audience, he visited Benedict at a convent inside the Vatican’s ancient walls. The Vatican statement said, “We join [Francis] in prayer for the Pope Emeritus.”
Throughout Wednesday, Catholics shared thoughts of concern, with a round of cardinals echoing Francis’s calls for prayer.
“Everyone in America is keeping Pope Emeritus Benedict in our prayers,” the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, Joe Donnelly, was quoted by the embassy as saying.
Cardinal Wilton Gregory, head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, encouraged prayer from “all Catholics & folks of good will.”
“He served our Church in many roles — priest, scholar, diocesan bishop, curial official, & Pontiff. May Christ reward him for his loving service,” Gregory wrote on Twitter.
In photos the Vatican has published of Benedict — including on Aug. 27, after a ceremony to name new cardinals — he appeared gaunt and hunched. But friends have said he remained clear-minded.
Benedict’s longtime aide, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, did not respond to a request for comment.
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