Benedict XVI is in a “serious” but “lucid and conscious” condition

The emeritus pope, Benedict XVI, is “absolutely lucid and conscious”, although his health conditions are “serious”as announced this Thursday by the director of the Vatican press office, Matteo Bruni.

“The emeritus pope managed to get a good night’s rest the night before, is fully lucid and alert and today, although the conditions are still serious, the situation is stable at the moment. Pope Francis renews the invitation to pray for him and to accompany him in these difficult times,” it said in a statement.

It was Pope Francis who, on Wednesday, warned about the situation of the emeritus pontiff in the general audience, when he asked for “a special prayer for Pope Benedict XVI, who in silence is supporting the church” and is “very sick”.

[El papa Francisco pide una “oración especial por Benedicto XVI” porque “está muy enfermo”]

After these words, Bruni issued a first press release to confirm that in the last few hours there had been “an aggravation” of his state “due to the advancement of age”, but without giving more details about his condition.

According to some media, Benedict XVI refused to be transferred to a hospital from the monastery Mater Ecclesiaein the Vatican gardens, where he has lived apart since 2013, after his resignation, and where he continues to be under constant surveillance by medical teams and accompanied by his secretary, the German Georg Gänswein.

And, according to the Italian newspaper La Stampa, which cites sources close to the monastery, the emeritus pontiff is “responding positively to treatment”. Yesterday, the Diocese of Rome assured that it has joined the prayer request made by Francis at the general audience on Wednesday, when he sounded the alarm about the situation of Benedict XVI.

“I ask 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,” Francis said. .

Since April 2, 2013, Joseph Ratzinger has lived surrounded by his Vatican “family”, made up of a secretary and four consecrated lay women of the institute memories Domini, who 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 (Germany) to see him again a few weeks before he died.