As more than 50,000 supporters jammed into St. Peter’s Square on Sunday for Pope Benedict’s next-to-last weekly blessing, as it emerged the ageing pontiff may have gone blind in one eye, reports the LA Times.
New evidence is emerging of Benedict’s declining physical condition. Peter Seewald, a German journalist who has interviewed Benedict on numerous occasions, said that when he last saw the pope 10 weeks ago, his hearing had deteriorated and he appeared to have gone blind in his left eye.
“His body had become so thin that the tailors had difficulty in keeping up with newly fitted clothes. … I’d never seen him so exhausted-looking, so worn down,” he told Focus, a German magazine, on Saturday.
Seewald quoted the pope as saying: “I’m an old man and the strength is ebbing. I think what I’ve done is enough.”
Asked if he was considering retiring, Benedict replied, “That depends on how much my physical strength will force me to that.”
Earlier last week Vatican Spokesman Federico Lombardi said “In the last few months he (Pope Benedict) has seen a decline in vigour, both of the body and spirit”.
“It was his personal decision taken with full freedom, which deserves maximum respect,” Lombardi told reporters.
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