Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI turns 95

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is 95 years old today and receives congratulations from all over the world at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery, where he departed after his resignation in February 2013, physically weak but always lucid, recently said his personal secretary, Georg Gänswein.

A few days ago, Gänswein, who was his historic secretary and continues to be so now and takes care of all his efforts, gave an interview to the Italian magazine Oggi in which he explained that the German pope is “physically weak, but his head always works very well”.

And that it helps him to be “methodical” in his daily life, concelebrating Mass at 7:30 and then listening to music on his sofa and that he even “has resumed his usual walk in the Vatican Gardens”, he said.

A few weeks ago, a magazine published some photos of Joseph Ratzinger in a wheelchair walking through the Vatican gardens always in white and wearing a hat to repair himself from the sun.

The last photo we have of pope emeritus is a little over a month old when on 7 March he was given volume VIII/1 of his Opera omnia, The Church, sign among the peoples, edited by the Vatican Publishing House and was seated in an armchair surrounded by his guests.

On April 13, Pope Francis visited his predecessor, Benedict XVI to greet him on his 95th birthday and they had a “brief and affectionate” conversation and prayed together, the Holy See then reported in a statement.

Benedict XVI's health will not allow big celebrations as in the past, when his brother, Georg, who died in July 2020, was going to visit him and musicians and beer were also sent from his native Bavaria.

The last few months have not been so easy for Benedict XVI that his secretary assured in the interview with Oggi that he is convinced that there is “a diabolical plan” to undermine the credibility of the pope emeritus.

For Gänswein, in the German-speaking world there is a tendency that attempts to attack the pontificate and the theological work of Ratzinger and also harm the person.

While on the accusations that the Mater Ecclesiae have raised anti-Francis positions, the German archbishop considered it “offensive and ridiculous”.

At the beginning of February, Benedict XVI had to come up with accusations of how he had handled some cases of priests accused of child abuse when he was archbishop of Munich and which had emerged in the report drafted by the German Church on pedophilia.

In a historic public statement, Benedict XVI stated: “I have had a great responsibility in the Catholic Church. All the more my grief is at the abuses and errors that have occurred during the time of my tenure in the respective places.”

Although this statement was alleged a report by his collaborators and lawyers denying any allegations of negligence or cover-up.

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 brother in hospital and in June 2020 when he traveled to Regensburg to visit his inseparable seriously ill brother.

(With information from EFE)

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