ROME — Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is in “stable” condition at the moment despite a serious decline in health, the Vatican announced Thursday.
Benedict XVI “managed to rest well last night and is absolutely lucid and alert,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement, and “although his condition remains serious, the situation at the moment is stable.”
The Vatican update, released at 2:17 p.m. local time, follows Wednesday’s appeal by Pope Francis for special prayers for Benedict and the announcement that the former pontiff is “seriously ill.”
No fewer than seven television news crews were already stationed around Saint Peter’s Square at 7:00 a.m. Thursday and continued throughout the day as part of what some have grimly termed a “papal death watch.”
While the Vatican has attributed Benedict’s diminished health to “age,” an understandable catchall for a 95-year-old man who has been frail for years, a more specific diagnosis of the former pope’s condition seems to point to kidney failure as well as a recently modified pacemaker.
Benedict himself has offered several spiritual reflections on his upcoming passing and his attitude toward death.
“Quite soon, I shall find myself before the final judge of my life,” the emeritus pope wrote last February.
“Even though, as I look back on my long life, I can have great reason for fear and trembling, I am nonetheless of good cheer,” he continued, “for I trust firmly that the Lord is not only the just judge, but also the friend and brother who himself has already suffered for my shortcomings, and is thus also my advocate, my ‘Paraclete.’”
In February 2013, Pope Benedict XVI became the first pope in some 600 years to resign from the papacy, setting the stage for the eventual election of Pope Francis.
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