MONITORING DESK
ISLAMABAD: Pope Francis said on Wednesday that the former head of the Catholic Church Benedict XVI is “very sick” and that he and the faithful are praying for him.
The pontiff asked people to “remember him, because he is very ill, asking the Lord to console and support him”.
Benedict was the first pope to resign since 1945
Benedict, 95, who quit his job in 2013 and became the first pontiff to resign since 1415, has almost completely withdrawn himself from public view.
The small number of photographs that have emerged of him showed him to be in increasingly frail health.
In 2013, Benedict cited his declining physical and mental health in his decision to become the first pope in six centuries to quit the job as head of the worldwide Catholic church.
In April, Pope Benedict’s long-time secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, told Vatican News that the ex-pope was “physically relatively weak and fragile”, but “in good spirits”.
