Pope Francis has said that his predecessor and former Pope Benedict XVI is in ill health and the current Pope has urged pilgrims at the Vatican to pray for him.
95-year-old Benedict became the first head of the Catholic Church to resign in 600 years in 2013, with old age as the reason behind it.
The Pope urged attendees at his final audience of the year to “pray a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict” at the conclusion of the meeting.
The Vatican also informed the people that the previous Pope’s health had worsened in recent hours.
“The situation at the moment remains controlled, constantly followed by doctors,” said spokesman Matteo Bruni.
Pope Francis was speaking with a general audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall during which time he announced Benedict’s ill health by reading from a paper that was held in his hand.
He then visited ex-Pope Benedict at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in the Vatican Gardens, where he has taken residence since his resignation.
Pope Francis call on people to pray for Benedict’s recovery
Francis had revealed, early in the month, that he often met his predecessor.
Calling Benedict a “saint” and holding him in high esteem said that he led a “high spiritual life” while also calling him “lucid” with a “good sense of humor.”
For some time, the former Pope had difficulty speaking, and two years ago, a Maltese cardinal claimed that Benedict had told newly elected cardinals that “the Lord has taken away my speech to let me appreciate silence.” Pope Francis told the Spanish daily ABC that the other person “speaks softly but listens to your discussion.”
Cardinals worldwide prayed in chorus with Pope Francis for his predecessor. “In these difficult and serious moments, let us unite in fervent prayer for our dear Pope Emeritus,” wrote Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, the senior most African prelate at the Vatican until last year.
When the Pope led the new cardinals to visit him at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in August, Benedict looked weak but still welcomed them with great fervor, shook hands, and engaged with them.
In 2013 when Benedict XVI was 85, he announced his resignation in February and shocked Catholics around the world. He had been elected Pope as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger less than eight years before.
Not since Gregory XII stepped down in 1415 had a pope resigned.
Benedict had chaired his predecessor John Paul’s funeral Mass. He was the eighth German Pope and in his tenure he has been a conservative with traditionalist views, voicing against the social activism of liberation theology.
But his papacy was black-spotted by a scandal involving child sexual abuse by priests. In 2009, two reports came out describing the depth of paedophilia and secrets within the Irish Church – and it was later known that around 400 priests had been deprived of their status by Benedict in 2011 and 2012.
However, at the start of this year, Benedict had accepted that there were faults in dealing with sexual abuse cases when he was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982.
He neglected to take action in four cases, according to a German investigation. While denying culpability, Benedict begged for pardon for any “grievous sin.”
Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the present archbishop of Munich, said he had visited Benedict in September and urged people with faith to pray for him as well.
Pope Francis in a Spanish interview this month cleared that he also had signed a letter of resignation in 2013 “in case of health impediment or whatever”, giving it to Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state at the time.
