The Pope Emeritus is said to have made this confession a few weeks before his death in a letter to his biographer, which the German weekly “Focus” revealed.
The insomnia suffered by Pope Benedict XVI was the “central reason” for his resignation in 2013, he revealed in a letter he sent to his biographer a few weeks before his death, revealed by a German weekly newspaper on Friday would.
The Pope Emeritus sent a letter to his biographer, the German Peter Seewald, on October 28, a few weeks before his death. In the letter, published by the weekly Focus, Joseph Ratzinger, who died last December at the age of 95, explains that the “central reason” for his resignation in February 2013 “was the insomnia that has (him) suffered continuously since World Youth Day had accompanied Cologne” in August 2005, a few months after his election as the successor to John Paul II.
A handkerchief “soaked in blood”
His family doctor then prescribed “strong remedies” for him, which initially enabled him to secure his protégé. However, according to the letter from the Pope Emeritus, these sleeping pills have reached their “limits” over time and “less and less can guarantee” their availability.
This use of sleeping pills is said to have been the cause of an incident during a trip to Mexico and Cuba in March 2012. The morning after the first night, he reportedly found his handkerchief was “soaked in blood,” according to the letter, quoted by Focus. “I must have bumped into something in the bathroom and fell,” writes the Pope Emeritus. A doctor was able to ensure that the injuries were not visible and a new personal physician is said to have insisted on prescribing a “reduction in sleeping pills” after the incident and advised the pope to only appear in the mornings on his trips to see the foreigner.
“more durable”
The pope emeritus says in his letter that he is aware that these medical restrictions “may only last for a short time” and this observation led him to resign in February 2013, a few months before WYD in Rio Opinion not the case was not able to “overcome”. He resigned early enough for his successor, Pope Francis, to acknowledge this visit to Brazil.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, whose resignation took the world by surprise in 2013, died on December 31 in the monastery in the Vatican Gardens to which he had retired. His pontificate was marked by several crises, such as the Vatileaks scandal in 2012, which exposed a vast corruption network in the Vatican, or cases of pedocrime involving clergy.