Continued medical supervision, urged to continue to pray for his health
(EFE)Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is in "serious but stable" health conditions and has spent the night constantly assisted by doctors and in the company of his secretary, Italian media said Thursday, citing sources close to the German pontiff.
"His situation has not changed since yesterday," sources in contact with the Mater Ecclesiae monastery, in the Vatican gardens, where the pope emeritus has been living apart since 2013, after his resignation, told the Ansa agency, adding that Benedict XVI who will remain under constant surveillance by medical teams.
Also at his side remains constantly accompanying him his secretary, the German Georg Gänswein, according to the Italian public television RAI.
The Holy See has not given further details on the health of the pontiff emeritus after Wednesday the director of the Vatican press office, Matteo Bruni, confirmed that in recent hours there had been "a worsening" of his condition "due to advancing age".
Meanwhile, concern for Benedict XVI's health has permeated Italian politics, and this very morning one of the spokesmen in the Chamber of Deputies of the ultra-conservative Brothers of Italy, the ruling party, has prayed for him.
"We all pray for the health of the Holy Father Emeritus Benedict XVI, undoubtedly the most important theologian of post-Enlightenment," said Alfredo Antoniozzi.
Yesterday, the Diocese of Rome assured that it has joined the prayer request formulated by Pope Francis at Wednesday's general audience, when he sounded the alarm about the situation of the pope emeritus.
"I ask for a special prayer for Pope Benedict XVI who in silence is sustaining the church and remembering that he is very ill and asking the Lord to comfort him and support him in that this witness of love for the Church until the end," he said.
Since April 2, 2013, Ratzinger has lived surrounded by his Vatican "family," consisting of a secretary and four consecrated laywomen from the "Memores Domini" institute, which belongs to the Communion and Liberation movement, who share the household chores 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 to see him again a few weeks before he died.