VATICAN CITY: December 29, 2022
New details about Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s condition have emerged following Pope Francis’s request yesterday for prayers for the former pontiff.
News of Benedict's declining health was revealed on Wednesday, at the end of the usual general audience, when Pope Francis asked the faithful assembled in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall to pray for his predecessor who, he said, was “supporting the Church in silence” and was “very ill".
By 11:30 Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni had issued a statement confirming that Benedict’s condition had worsened “in the last few hours” due to “advancing age” but said it was “under control” and being monitored by doctors. Bruni added that after the audience, Pope Francis visited the pope emeritus at his Mater Ecclesiae residence in the Vatican.
