Benedict XVI news: Vatican gives update on former Pope’s condition

Pope Francis has called for prayers for his “very ill” predecessor, Benedict.

In remarks delivered in his final audience of the year, he asked people to “pray a special prayer” for the unwell ex-pope.

He had been addressing an audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall.

The former pope was once known as ‘God’s Rottweiler’ for his hardline conservative views.

My colleague Thomas Kingsley takes a closer look at pope Benedict XVI:

It is unclear whether the usual protocols will apply when ex-Pope Benedict does die, an expert has said.

The Catholic Church has strict rules in place for when its leader passes away.

Citing old age, Benedict XVI resigned in 2013, becoming the first pope in six centuries to step away from the role.

He has continued to live at the Vatican, meaning there have been two popes living alongside one another for nearly a decade.

“We’ve never had this before where a living pope will help bury a dead pope,” Catholic historian John McGreevy said.

Pope Francis on Wednesday revealed that Pope Benedict was “very ill” and went to see him at his home in the Vatican where he has lived since retiring in 2013, sparking fears that he was near death.

The Vatican later said Benedict’s health had deteriorated in recent hours, but that the situation was under control as doctors monitored him.

Benedict in 2013 became the first pope in 600 years to resign, and he chose to live out his retirement in seclusion in a converted monastery in the Vatican Gardens.

Few had expected his retirement — now in its 10th year — to last longer than his eight-year reign as pope.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said yesterday that Benedict “managed to rest well last night, is absolutely lucid and alert and today, while his condition remains grave, the situation at the moment is stable.”

“Pope Francis renews the invitation to pray for him and accompany him in these difficult hours,” he said.

Word of Pope Benedict’s declining health immediately posed questions about what would happen when he dies, given the unprecedented reality of having a reigning pope presumably presiding over the funeral of a former pope.

Most Vatican experts expect any funeral would resemble that for any retired bishop of Rome, albeit with the caveat that there would be official delegations to honor a former head of state, as well as pilgrims from Germany — homeland of Benedict, the former Joseph Ratzinger — and beyond.

Otherwise, while the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano headlined its yesterday’s editions with news of Benedict’s health, life continued as normal in the tiny city-state that Benedict and Pope Francis call home.

Francis had a seemingly routine day of audiences yesterday, meeting with his ambassador to Madagascar, the commander of the Swiss Guards and a fellow Jesuit.

In the square, the line of tourists waiting to get into St Peter’s Basilica wrapped almost entirely around the piazza, with couples and families stopping to pose for selfies in front of the life-sized Nativity scene and Christmas tree set up in the square.

Bishops in Germany asked for prayers and some of the faithful headed to the Chapel of Grace on the town square in Altoetting, a major pilgrimage destination a few miles from Benedict’s hometown of Marktl am Inn that he visited many times in his life.

“I know that he has been preparing for his coming home in the eternal world,” said Herbert Hofauer, the retired mayor of the deeply Catholic town who said he saw Benedict last in the spring.

“I believe that he is very calmly looking forward to this encounter.”

At the St Oswald church in Marktl, where Benedict was baptized, lay head of the local congregation Sandra Maier put up a framed picture of the former pope and arranged a small pew so parishioners could kneel and pray for him.

Ms Maier said she was “shaken and deeply moved by the news” on Benedict’s health.

“I wish for him to have an easy time now and not suffer so much,” she said.

“We are proud here in Marktl that we have a Bavarian pope,” Ms Maier, 50, said, recalling the two times she met him personally.

“He’s a good man and was a great pope.”

While St Peter’s Square in the Vatican was mostly filled with visitors from abroad yesterday — during peak Christmas tourist season — some Italians were out to pay their respects or at least offer a prayer.

“Obviously it is a bad situation, we are all close to Pope Ratzinger, we are sad about the situation, so we came here to make our small contribution,” said one pilgrim, Giorgio Gibin.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is lucid, alert and stable but his condition remains serious, the Vatican said yesterday, a day after it revealed that the 95-year-old’s health had deteriorated recently.

A statement from Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Pope Francis asked for continued prayers “to accompany him in these difficult hours.”

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI shared a “great affinity” with the late Queen, the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster has said.

The 95-year-old former pope’s historic decision to resign due to age in 2013 will remain “an exception”, and he admired the Queen for continuing her royal duties until the end, according to Cardinal Vincent Nichols.

His comments came after the Vatican said the former pope’s health has worsened due to his age, and doctors are constantly monitoring his condition.