Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is in “serious but stable” health conditions and spent the night constantly assisted by doctors and in the company of his secretary, the Italian media said Thursday, citing sources close to the German pontiff.
“His situation has not changed since yesterday,” sources in contact with the Mater Ecclesiae monastery, in the Vatican gardens, where the emeritus pope has lived apart since 2013, following his resignation, told the Ansa news agency, adding that Benedict XVI will continue in constant surveillance by medical teams.
In addition, his secretary, the German Georg Gänswein, remains constantly by his side, according to Italian public television RAI.
The Holy See has not given more details regarding the health of the emeritus pontiff following this Wednesday the director of the Vatican press office, Matteo Bruni, confirmed that in the last few hours there had been “an aggravation” of his condition “due to the advance of age”.
Meanwhile, concern for the health of Benedict XVI has permeated Italian politics and this morning one of the spokesmen in the Chamber of Deputies for the ultra-Brothers of Italy, the ruling party, has asked for him.
“We all ask for the health of the Holy Father emeritus Benedict XVI, undoubtedly the most important theologian of the post-enlightenment period,” said Alfredo Antoniozzi.
The Diocese of Rome assured that it has joined the prayer request made by Pope Francis at the general audience on Wednesday, when he sounded the alarm regarding the situation of the pope emeritus.
“I ask for a special prayer for Pope Benedict XVI who is supporting the Church in silence and to remember that he is very ill and asking the Lord to comfort him and support him in this testimony of love for the Church until the end,” he said.
Since April 2, 2013, Ratzinger has lived surrounded by his Vatican “family”, made up of a secretary and four consecrated lay women from the “Memores Domini” institute, which belongs to the Communion and Liberation movement, who share the housework and take care of the needs of the pope emeritus.
Benedict XVI, the first pope to renounce the pontificate since the time of Gregory XII, at the beginning of the 15th century, has rarely left the leonine walls, once to visit his inseparable brother in the hospital and in June 2020 when he traveled to Regensburg to see him once more a few weeks before he died.
Source: EFE
