Pope Francis asks for prayers for ‘very sick’ Benedict XVI

Pope Francis has called for prayers for former Pope Benedict XVI – saying he is “very sick”.

Francis made the surprise appeal at the end of his general audience. The Vatican later said the health of the pope emeritus had “worsened” in recent hours and that Francis had gone to see him after the audience. It added that Benedict’s condition is “under control” and he is receiving “constant” medical care.

In 2013, Benedict became the first pope in some 600 years to resign, citing his “deteriorating” health. Since then he has lived in a convent on Vatican grounds and has become increasingly frail in recent years. Although, it has been said that Benedict’s mind has remained sharp.

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“I would like to ask all of you for a special prayer for pope emeritus Benedict, who, in silence, is sustaining the Church. Let us remember him. He is very sick, asking the lord to console and sustain him in this witness of love for the Church, until the end,” Francis said during his address.

Benedict became the first German pope in 1,000 years when he was elected in April 2005 to succeed the popular Pope John Paul II. Cardinals chose him from among their number seeking continuity and what one called at the time “a safe pair of hands”.

An unflinching conservative when it comes to theology, Benedict left Germany and his post as archbishop of Munich in 1982 to head the Vatican’s doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which he did for 25 years as cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Benedict produced more than 60 books between 1963, when he was a priest, and 2013. “In reality, I am more of a professor, a person who reflects and meditates on spiritual questions,” Benedict later said.

In his resignation letter in February 2013, Benedict wrote: “After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.

“I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering.

“However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me.”

When Benedict turned 95 in April, his longtime secretary, archbishop Georg Gänswein, said of Benedict: “Naturally he is physically relatively weak and fragile, but rather lucid.”

Catholic leaders from Britain, the US and around the world joined Francis’s call for prayers. In Benedict's native Germany, the head of the nation’s bishops’, conference, Limburg bishop Georg Baetzing, told German news agency dpa: "My thoughts are with the emeritus pope... I call on the faithful in Germany to pray for Benedict XVI."

In Berlin, chancellor Olaf Scholz “wishes the German pope, as we say, a good recovery and his thoughts are with him,” government spokesperson Christiane Hoffmann said.

Benedict’s near-eight-year papacy was marked by controversial comments, such as him saying the use of condoms in the fight against Aids only worsened the problem. The 2012 “Vatileaks” scandal paved the way for the end of his papacy, with Benedict’s private secretary, Paolo Gabriele, leaking secret documents that revealed cronyism and feuding within the Vatican. Mr Gabriele – who died in 2020 – confessed to stealing confidential documents and passing them to an Italian journalist.

Mr Gabriele was sentenced to 18 months in prison on charges of theft and divulging classified documents in October 2012. The court in Vatican City took into account that Mr Gabriele believed, “albeit erroneously”, that his motivations for leaking the documents had been pure in exposing some of the inner workings of the Vatican. Benedict pardoned him a few weeks later.

His past involvement in the Hitler Youth has also been a point of contention, despite a young Benedict being forcibly enrolled in the organisation. The former pope has made it clear that he was never a member of the Nazi party. Little is known about his time during the Nazi era, but documents show that he served in an anti-aircraft unit near Munich.

In the wake of his resignation, Benedict has become a rallying point for conservatives who have opposed Pope Francis. The “two popes” issue has not been helped by Benedict’s decision to continue wearing white and be known as ”pope emeritus” – rather than returning to the use of his birth name, Joseph Ratzinger. The resulting polarisation has given rise to calls from both conservatives and liberals for changes in Church law to regulate the functions and status of former popes.

Francis has always been generous in public remarks about Benedict. However, earlier this year in an interview with the Spanish-language broadcaster TelevisaUnivision, Francis described Benedict as a “saintly and discreet man” but added: “But in the future, things should be delineated more, or things should be made more explicit.”

The pope said: “I think for having taken the first step after so many centuries, he gets 10 points. It’s a marvel.”