UPDATE: Vatican says Benedict XVI 'recovering', conditions 'not grave'. Benedict XVI is “very frail” and sick with a bacterial infection, his biographer Peter Seewald has claimed. Seewald, whose latest biography of the Pope Emeritus is released in English later this year, visited Benedict on Saturday to present him with a copy of the book. After the visit, he told a German newspaper that Benedict had been “very frail” since returning from visiting his ailing older brother, Mgr Georg Ratzinger, in Bavaria in June. Several news outlets have since picked up his claim that the 93-year-old pope emeritus is suffering from facial erysipelas, a bacterial infection of the skin which causes a painful, red rash. The Catholic Herald is currently seeking confirmation of the claim.