'The angels are gathering to take Benedict home'
Former pope Benedict XVI is "lucid and alert" and his condition remains serious but stable, the Vatican said on Thursday, the day after revealing the 95-year-old's health had deteriorated. Benedict, who in 2013 became the first pope since the Middle Ages to resign as head of the worldwide Catholic Church, has been in fragile health for many years and uses a wheelchair. But Pope Francis sparked alarm on Wednesday by revealing at his general audience that his predecessor, whose birth name is Joseph Ratzinger, was "very ill". "The Pope Emeritus was able to rest well last night, he is absolutely lucid and alert and today, although his condition remains serious, the situation at the moment is stable," the Vatican press office said on Thursday. Francis called for people to pray for him, before going to visit Benedict at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in the Vatican grounds where he lives. The Vatican later confirmed the ex-pope's health had worsened "due to advancing age", while a Vatican source said on Wednesday that it began deteriorating "about three days ago". "It is his vital functions that are failing, including his heart," the source said, adding that no hospitalisation was planned, as he has the "necessary medical equipment" at home. In response to the news, Catholic leaders from around the world said they would pray for him, from the United States to Benedict's native Germany. Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster in London said Vatican officials had told him "the angels are gathering to take Benedict home." In Regensburg, where the former pope taught at the university between 1969 and 1977, a handful of faithful braved the early morning cold on Thursday to attend a mass at the gothic cathedral. "I am asking you to accompany Benedict on his final journey," Regensburg's auxiliary bishop told worshippers, as a large portrait of the pope emeritus sat on the altar. The Vatican also announced a special mass to be held on Friday at Rome's Basilica of St John Lateran. (AFP)