Former Pope Benedict is unwell, Pope Francis says

Pope Francis said Wednesday that his predecessor Pope Benedict is “very sick” and asked for prayers for the 95-year-old former pontiff.

“I want to ask you all for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict who sustains the Church in his silence. He is very sick,” Francis said during his general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday.

“We ask the Lord to console and sustain him in this witness of love for the Church to the very end.”

In 2013, Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world by making the almost unprecedented decision to resign from his position, citing “advanced age.”

Benedict’s announcement marked the first time a pope had stepped down in nearly 600 years. The last pope to resign before his death was Gregory XII, who in 1415 quit to end a civil war within the Catholic Church in which more than one man claimed to be pope.

(CNN)