Former Pope Benedict's condition critical

Former Pope Benedict's condition critical: Pope Francis said- his health is continuously declining, pray

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 09:40 PM (IST)
 0
Former Pope Benedict's condition critical

The health of former Pope Benedict (95) is very bad. The current Pope Francis said in a statement – I appeal to all of you to pray for Pope Benedict, his condition is becoming serious. Benedict resigned from the highest post in the Church 9 years ago.
A Vatican spokesperson also admitted that Benedict's condition was critical and that it was due to age-related ailments. Doctors are monitoring his health.
Pope Benedict XVI (XVI) shocked Catholics around the world by resigning in 2013. Then he said – I am resigning due to deteriorating health. This was the first time in nearly 600 years that a pope had stepped down. According to CNN, Gregory XII resigned in 1415, before Benedict. However, then the reason was a quarrel between two groups of Christians.
In 2020, the Vatican said in a statement – Benedict's health is definitely bad, but he is not serious. His tenure was surrounded by the most controversies in the two-thousand-year history of the Vatican Church.
Last year, Pope Benedict finally admitted that he was present at a meeting in 1980 to consider a priest accused of child sex abuse. A few days ago a report by a German law firm quoted the Pope as saying that he was not part of any such meeting. On changing the old statement, Benedict clarified – this happened due to a mistake in the editing of my statement.
Benedict was Archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982. During this period, four cases of child sexual abuse were reported. Later, the church itself entrusted the investigation of the matter to a German law firm. It has made this report public after showing it to the church.
The Pope had previously said that he did not remember discussing these matters. He also said that he had not committed any mistake in handling these cases. After this, his secretary Georg Ganswain issued a new statement quoting the Pope. It was said in it- that something had gone wrong due to editing in the old statement. There is no bad intention behind this. We apologize for this.
The role of another archbishop, who is currently a close aide of the current Pope, Pope Francis, has also been questioned. In this case, the Church itself initiated the investigation. This German law firm was given the responsibility to investigate the cases that happened from 1945 to 2019. He was specifically instructed to see whether those in high positions in the Church carried out their responsibilities properly or not.
The four cases in which the former Pope was accused of negligence are all related to child abuse. Then Benedict was named Joseph Rettinger and he was the archbishop of the Munich Church. He held this position from 1977 to 1982. It is alleged that these crimes were committed while he was archbishop. Not only this, all those who were accused continued to work in important positions in the church.
The report alleged that Cardinal Reinhard, Archbishop of Munich, did not act in two cases. Marx also offered his resignation to Pope Francis in June 2021 in this matter. Francis did not accept the resignation. A few days before this, he had made changes in the Vatican's criminal law. The law was made very strict in cases of sexual abuse.

Muskan Kumawat Journalist & Writer