“According to Benedict’s German biographer, journalist Peter Seewald, the pope emeritus is now extremely frail,” the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper wrote at the time.
His private secretary, Georg Gaenswein told a German newspaper last month that the shingles were clearing up, although no official statement has since been issued about Benedict’s health.
Shingles are “a very painful disease, but not deadly,” Gaenswein said, adding that the former pope had suffered “pain that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy”.
The virus that causes the rash is the same herpes zoster behind chickenpox, and can reactivate after long periods spent dormant.
Benedict’s German biographer, journalist Peter Seewald, had raised the alarm about the former pope’s health after meeting him on August 1 to hand over his latest book.
“According to Seewald, the pope emeritus is now extremely frail,” the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper wrote at the time.
Benedict has lived with a pacemaker since 1997, while a brain haemorrhage in 1991 left him blind in his left eye.
The former theology professor, who taught for 25 years before being appointed Archbishop of Munich, went on to become the man in charge of preserving Catholic doctrine by defending points of Christian tradition which seem to be in danger.
On the death of John Paul II in 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected the 265th pontiff, becoming Benedict XVI.
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