Pope Benedict XVI’s Age, Health Have Vatican Watchers Abuzz
Pope Benedict is now 84, the same age his predecessor was at the time of his death, and he’s clearly starting to slow down. But he might not have to die to relinquish the papacy—he could retire.
When Pope John Paul II died of septic shock and heart failure, in April 2005, he was 84. He had survived cancer, a gunshot, and was in the late stages of Parkinson’s disease, and in the months and years preceding his agonizing end, there was near-constant chatter about the politically...
