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The Vatican, responding to a German newspaper report that former Pope Benedict XVI was significantly sick, stated on Monday his condition was “not particularly worrying” and that he was overcoming a painful however not grave ailment.
The clarification got here hours after Benedict’s biographer, Peter Seewald, sparked alarm by telling the Passauer Neue Presse that he had discovered the 93-year-old ex-pope exceptionally frail when he visited him on Saturday.
Seewald stated Benedict, who has been in shaky well being for a while, was now affected by shingles, a viral an infection that causes painful rashes and is frequent amongst older individuals.
“The health conditions of the Pope Emeritus are not particularly worrying, apart from being those of an old man of 93 who is overcoming the most acute phase of a painful but not grave illness,” the assertion stated.
Seewald stated Benedict’s voice was barely audible – echoing one thing different guests have stated for months – and that the previous pope instructed him he would possibly choose up writing once more if he regains his power.
In June, Benedict, who lives in a former convent within the Vatican gardens, left Italy for the primary time since his resignation in 2013 for an emotional farewell go to to his older brother Georg of their native Bavaria.
Georg Ratzinger died on July 1 aged 96. The two brothers had been ordained monks on the identical day in 1951.
Benedict, who was elected in 2005 to succeed the extensively fashionable Pope John Paul II after a reign of practically 27 years, shocked the world and even his closest aides on Feb. 11, 2013, when he introduced in Latin he was stepping down.
He instructed a gathering of cardinals that he was too previous and frail to steer an establishment with greater than 1.three billion members.
At the time of Benedict’s resignation the Vatican was mired in a raft of monetary woes, sexual abuse scandals and infighting amongst bureaucrats that led to leaks of vital paperwork.
Benedict stated his resignation was for solely well being causes.
Hardline conservatives within the Church who’ve been alarmed by Pope Francis’ progressive strikes have seemed to Benedict as their normal bearer. This compelled the previous pope on a number of events to remind them that there’s just one pope – Francis.
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