UPDATED: Benedict XVI near Death, Francis asks for Prayers

Sudden decline due to aggravated kidney failure…

UPDATED: Benedict XVI near Death, Francis asks for Prayers

Fr. Joseph Ratzinger as ‘Pope Benedict XVI’

UPDATES 30-DEC-2022 17:42 UTC:

• Pope Emeritus rested well overnight, health situation stable (Vatican News)
• Vatican: Benedict XVI Has Rested Well, ‘His Condition is Stable’ (National Catholic Register)

UPDATES 29-DEC-2022 17:22 UTC:

• Church in prayer for Benedict as new details emerge in Rome (Catholic Herald)
• Benedict XVI ‘stable’ but still in serious condition, Vatican says (Crux)
• Pope renews invitation to pray for Benedict XVI in these difficult hours (Vatican News)
• Outpouring of prayers for health of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (Vatican News)
• Benedict XVI: Update on Pope Emeritus’ Health Status (Zenit)

ORIGINAL POST:

At the end of his weekly General Audience today, ‘Pope’ Francis made the following announcement:

I would like to ask you all for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict, who is supporting the Church in silence. Remember him – he is very ill – asking the Lord to console him and to sustain him in this witness of love for the Church, until the end.

(Antipope Francis, General Audience, Vatican.va, Dec. 28 2022)

Subsequently, the spokesman of the Vatican Press Office, Matteo Bruni, released the following communiqué:

In regard to the state of health of the Pope Emeritus, for whom Pope Francis asked for prayers at the end of this morning’s General Audience, I can confirm that in the last hours a worsening has been verified due to his advanced age. Up to the moment the situation is under control, followed constantly by the doctors.

At the end of the General Audience, Pope Francis went to the Mater Ecclesiae monastery to visit Benedict XVI. We join him in prayer for the Pope Emeritus.

(“Official Statement of the Vatican’s Spokesman on Benedict XVI’s State of Health”, Zenit, Dec. 28, 2022)

For the Vatican to make such candid announcements, the 95-year-old Benedict’s condition must indeed be serious. Usually the Vatican is the last to admit that there is a serious health issue afflicting the ‘Pope’ or, in this case, the ‘Pope emeritus’.

It seems clear, therefore, that Fr. Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI’s real name) is near death, and that means his judgment by Almighty God is imminent. Let us pray that he will convert in his final hours, repenting of the horrific heresies and other errors he has personally taught, promoted, advanced, insinuated, permitted, and tolerated for decades, as well as of all his other sins.

Here are various sources reporting on the state of Fr. Ratzinger’s health:

• Pope Francis asks for prayers for Benedict XVI (Vatican News)
• Saying Benedict XVI is ‘very sick,’ Francis calls for prayers for predecessor (Crux)
• Benedict XVI’s Health Deteriorates (National Catholic Register)
• Vatican shares prayer for Benedict XVI’s health (Catholic World Report)
• Pope Francis asks for special prayer for ‘very ill’ Benedict XVI (America)
• Letter #136, 2022 Wed Dec 28: “Pray for Benedict” (Inside the Vatican)

Rome Reports has released the following video clip concerning the development:

Vatican News has released this prayer for Benedict XVI.

Few people in the world have done as much lasting damage to souls than Joseph Ratzinger with his theology. Liberalism with a conservative veneer has been his pedigree. To underscore just how serious his theological errors are, here are some select few refresher posts:

• New Biography of Benedict XVI confirms: Ratzinger recognized as ‘Dangerous Modernist’ early on
• Benedict XVI: No Mission to the Jews, just Dialogue
• New biography describes great influence of Joseph Ratzinger in the revolutionary upheaval of Vatican II
• Ratzinger’s “Dominus Iesus” Document – a Critical Analysis
• Ratzinger Credited with Saving Lutheran Agreement
• Ecumenism according to Ratzinger: Pluriform Unity
• Ratzinger, Hegel, and Summorum Pontificum
• “One and the Same Rite”?: How Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum destroys the Traditional Mass
• “In Bread and Wine He Gives Himself Entirely”: Old Ratzinger Sermon denies Transubstantiation
• Flashback 1963: Ratzinger: Demolish the Holy Office!
• Flashback 1967: Ratzinger: The Tridentine Mass is a Dead Liturgy
• Flashback 1968: Ratzinger’s Book Banned in Warsaw Diocese by Cardinal Wyszynski for being too Liberal
• Flashback 1982: Ratzinger Denies Dogma of Resurrection of Jesus Christ
• Flashback 2000: Ratzinger Denies Dogma of Infant Baptism
• Ratzinger denies Catholic Teaching on Original Sin
• Benedict XVI and the “Prophetic Mission of Fatima”: The Rest of the Story

Our Blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ shed His Most Precious Blood also for Joseph Ratzinger. May it not have been shed in vain. Pray that Ratzinger will not lose his soul, will neither presume nor despair of his salvation, but, dying in Faith, hope, and charity will escape the clutches of hell and the evil one in these final hours.

Lord Jesus, have mercy on Fr. Ratzinger and grant him perfect contrition before he dies. Amen.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Sergey Kozhukhov; cropped)
License: CC BY-SA 3.0