Pope Francis announces that his predecessor, Benedict XVI, is “gravely ill” and prays for him.

The sovereign pontiff, during a general audience, asked for a “special prayer” for his predecessor.

This announcement is disturbing. Pope Francis announced Wednesday that his predecessor, Benedict XVI, is “gravely ill” and that he is praying for someone who resigned in 2013 for health reasons.

“I would like to ask all of you for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict. To keep his memory alive, I ask God to comfort and sustain him as he is seriously ill,” the Pope said during the audience.

Minutes later, the Vatican confirmed that Benedict XVI’s health had deteriorated.

Waiver and Disputes

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, real name Joseph Ratzinger, resigned in 2013 due to ill health and retired to a monastery in the Vatican Gardens.

After an eight-year pontificate marked by many crises, Benedict XVI was gripped by the drama of child abuse in the Church in early 2022. Questioned by a report in Germany about his handling of sexual abuse during his tenure as archbishop of Munich, he broke his silence to ask for “forgiveness” but assured that he had not covered up a child offender.

His abdication, announced in Latin on February 11, 2013, was a personal decision related to his weakened strength, not to the pressure of scandals, the former pope assured, a great theologian but not comfortable with the crowd. In 2016.

With this gesture, unprecedented in 700 years, the first German pope in modern history paved the way for his successors. François, 85, suffers from knee pain and left the possibility “open”.