Pope Francis announced on Wednesday, December 28 announced that his predecessor, Pope Benedict who resigned from the post nine years ago, is very sick after a deterioration in his health.
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Speaking during his general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday, Pope Francis said, “I want to ask you all for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict who sustains the Church in his silence. He is very sick”.
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Image Credit: The Guardian
We ask the Lord to console and sustain him in this witness of love for the Church to the very end”.
In 2013, Pope Benedict XVI announced his decision to resign from his position citing the “advanced stage”.
His announcement marked the first time a pope had stepped down in nearly 600 years. The last pope to resign before his death was Gregory XII, who in 1415 quit ending a civil war within the Catholic Church in which more than one man claimed to be pope.
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