Former Pope Benedict Is Very Sick – Pope Francis(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Pope Francis has stated that Pope Benedict XVI, his predecessor, is “very sick”. “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. “Let’s ask the Lord to comfort him and sustain him in this testimony of love to the church to the very end.”African Examiner writes that Benedict XVI was the pope from April 19, 2005, until his resignation on February 28, 2013. He is the first pope to voluntarily resign from office in over 700 years and since his resignation, he has stayed in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery inside the Vatican and has been largely withdrawn from public life.