• The cardinal declared that the pope emeritus was “in intimate communion with Pope Francis”.
• He attended Holy Mass in his chamber yesterday afternoon.
• In 2013, Benedict resigned as pope for the first time in 600 years.

Following a decrease in health, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI took part in a private Mass in his room on Friday, according to the Vatican, as the faithful in Rome commemorated “this last stretch of his voyage.”

In a fresh medical update released by the Vatican on Friday afternoon, it was stated that Benedict had enjoyed a second night of sound sleep.

He attended Holy Mass in his chamber yesterday afternoon, according to a statement from Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni. His condition is currently stable.

Pope Francis visited his 95-year-old predecessor at his house in the Vatican Gardens on Wednesday after learning that he was “extremely unwell.” Francis urged people to pray for Benedict, and both ordinary Catholics and cardinals responded with expressions of support.

In 2013, Benedict resigned as pope for the first time in 600 years, claiming he was no longer mentally or physically capable of overseeing the Catholic Church’s 1.2 billion adherents. Francis’ election was made possible by his resignation.

Benedict, who served the Vatican as its doctrinal defender for many years as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, decided to spend his retirement in isolation in a former monastery on the confines of Vatican City. His lifelong papal family, which includes his secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, and a few consecrated women who assist with home duties, were caring for the churchman who was born in Germany.

Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, the cardinal vicar of Rome, said a special Mass for Benedict on Friday night in the Basilica of St. John Lateran. When Benedict was the Pope, the imposing basilica served as his cathedral and he was the bishop of Rome.

In praising Benedict, the cardinal noted that he “always displayed a profound trust in Providence.”

In his homily, De Donatis stated that as a priest, theologian, bishop, and pope, he simultaneously “represented the strength and the sweetness of the faith, the essentialness and the simplicity of he who knows that, when you dream with God, dreams become reality.”

De Donatis stated of Benedict, who has served as pope emeritus for almost ten years, that “even in old age, and in disease, continues to support humanity entirely offering oneself.”

The cardinal declared that the pope emeritus was “in intimate communion with Pope Francis.”

Some of Francis’ or his predecessor’s detractors have attempted to portray the connection between the retiring and in-office pontiffs as a form of rivalry, but De Donatis’ remarks appeared to intended to dispel such an impression.

The closing sentences of the homily sounded almost like a funeral ode.

God will occasionally approach this brother of ours while he is asleep in death and will yell, “Joseph, get up, Joseph, rise,” to him.

The cardinal continued, “And it will be Christ and his mother who will take him with them and bring him into paradise, where the dream of a life will give way to the reality of eternity.

A prayer asking God to “support and console him with his presence in this last stretch of his pilgrimage” was read aloud during the Mass by one of the devout.

Benedict has stated that he would prefer to be buried in the crypt beneath St. Peter’s Basilica, which used to house St. John Paul II’s tomb before it was recently transferred upstairs into the main basilica.

At the conclusion of Mass, De Donatis noted that because Jesus’ mother had vowed to be close to her children in their hour of need, the faithful were committing Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI to her maternal care.

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