Prayers for frail ex-pope Benedict

Former pope Benedict XVI’s condition remains stable, the Vatican said yesterday, as Catholics prayed for the 95-year old former pontiff whose health has seriously deteriorated.The German, who in 2013 was the first pope since the Middle Ages to resign as head of the worldwide Catholic Church, has become increasingly frail over the years.Pope Francis said on Wednesday that his predecessor, whose birth name is Joseph Ratzinger, was "very ill”.Yesterday the Vatican said his condition was "stable”, adding that Benedict had rested well overnight and taken part in a mass held in his bedroom.Benedict moved out of the papal palace and into a former convent within the Vatican when he retired.Francis called on Wednesday for people to pray for him, before visiting him at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery.Bishops from Europe, the United States and beyond, urged the faithful to keep Benedict in their thoughts.The Vatican later confirmed the ex-pope’s health had worsened "due to advancing age”, while a Vatican source told AFP it had begun deteriorating "about three days ago”."It is his vital functions that are failing, including his heart,” the source said, adding that no hospital admission was planned, as he has the "necessary medical equipment” at home.At Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican, tourists and pilgrims taking selfies in front of the Christmas tree and nativity scene contrasted with the few journalists on standby in case of a death announcement.Benedict was 78 when he succeeded the long-reigning and popular John Paul II in April 2005.His eight-year pontificate was marked by multiple crises, including the global clerical sex abuse scandal, which has dogged him in retirement as well.A damning report for the German church in January 2022 accused him of personally having failed to stop four predatory priests in the 1980s, when he was archbishop of Munich.Francis has often praised Benedict, saying that it was like having a grandfather at home.However, the presence of two men dressed in white in the Vatican has at times been troublesome.Conservatives have looked to the former pope as their standard bearer and some ultra-traditionalists even refused to acknowledge Francis as a legitimate pontiff.