The comments put the church on watch about one of its most towering conservative figures, who served as pontiff from 2005 until 2013.
“We join [Francis] in prayer for the Pope Emeritus,” the Vatican said.
After his remarks Wednesday, which came during a general audience with pilgrims, Francis paid a visit to Benedict at the convent where the retired pope lives, the church said.
Previously, the Vatican had published photos of the two popes together on Aug. 27, following a ceremony to name new cardinals, with Benedict looking gaunt and hunched.
Those who’ve visited the pope emeritus in recent years have said he is frail but remains sharp.
Benedict’s longtime aide, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since becoming the first pope in six centuries to step down from the job, Benedict has been living in a Vatican convent. He has now been ex-pope for longer than he served as pope — a notably long final chapter, given that he’d cited “deteriorated” strength as a factor in his abdication. In 2018, he told the Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily, that he was “on a pilgrimage toward Home.”
He had pledged in retirement to take up a life of seclusion — reading, writing, going on walks in a stately garden. But his life behind closed doors has ended up being quite complicated — and complicating for the church.
He opted in retirement to wear papal white and chose not to revert to his given name, Joseph Ratzinger. He was embraced as a symbol by a small but vocal band of traditionalists who feel that Francis is leading the church astray. Though often Benedict stayed quiet on controversial matters, he intervened several times, including once to contradict Francis’s ideas on the nature of clerical abuse.
At the same time, he has stated clearly that there is only one top authority figure in the church. “There is one pope, he is Francis,” Benedict said in one interview.
