Former Pope Benedict is ‘very sick’, says Pope Francis

• Pope Benedict, former pontiff who retired from the position nine years ago.
• Pope Benedict XVI’s 2013 resignation startled the globe.
• Four cases of child sex abuse were reported to him, including two in Munich.

Pope Benedict, the 95-year-old former pontiff who retired from the position nine years ago, has been described by Pope Francis as “extremely unwell” following a decline in his health on Wednesday.

“I want to ask you all for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict who sustains the Church in his silence. He is very sick,” Francis said during his general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday.

“We ask the Lord to console and sustain him in this witness of love for the Church to the very end.”

A Vatican spokesman later confirmed that “in the last few hours there has been a deterioration due to the advancement of (Benedict’s) age.”

“The situation at the moment remains under control and continually monitored by his doctors,” the spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said, adding that Francis visited his predecessor at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in Vatican City after his general audience.

Pope Benedict XVI surprised the world in 2013 when he abruptly announced his resignation from the papacy, citing “advanced age.”

The news of Benedict’s resignation was the first resignation of a pope in nearly 600 years. Gregory XII, the last pope to step down before dying, did so in 1415 to put an end to a papal succession dispute within the Catholic Church.

Following allegations in German media that Benedict was unwell, the Vatican stated in 2020 that he had a “painful but not dangerous ailment.”

Two years previously, Benedict stated that “with the progressive diminishing of my physical forces, inwardly I am on a pilgrimage toward Home” in a rare public letter that was published in the Italian newspaper.

The recent investigation of Benedict’s tenure as Archbishop of Munich and Freising, from 1977 to 1982, following the publication in January of a Church-commissioned report into abuse by Catholic clergy there, has cast a shadow over his legacy.

According to the investigation, he was made aware of four instances of child sex abuse, including two that occurred while he was living in Munich, but did nothing about them. He also admitted to attending a meeting concerning a predatory priest.

Later, Benedict responded to those accusations by acknowledging his attendance at the meeting but refuting claims that he did so on purpose.

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