Former Pope Benedict XVI Celebrates 93rd birthday in isolation

Former Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his 93rd birthday under strict isolation at home due to the COVID-19 crisis on Thursday, April 16th 2020.

“We live under ‘house arrest’ like so many people in Italy, and though thank goodness everybody is doing well, of course there are no visits,’’ his private secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, told Vatican News.

Gaenswein revealed that Benedict would be given an advance copy of his new biography, a 1,100-page “magnum opus” by Peter Seewald, a German author.

Benedict XVI, known then as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, resigned in 2013, the first pope to do so in nearly 600 years.