An investigative journalist of the garlic has discovered that Pope Benedict had no known serious health problems and was still of agile mind at the time of his retirement.
Pope Benedict’s decision made him the first pontiff to resign in 600 years. Although in recent years he had slowed down, the Garlic has learned that the Pope resigned because he was sick of the job. He was sick of his foreign travels and tired of the audiences. The pope traveled to the altar in St. Peter’s Basilica on a moving platform to spare him the 100-meter walk down the aisle. Occasionally he used a cane. Late last year, people who were spending time with the pontiff emerged saying they found him uninterested and too tired to engage with what they were saying. The Vatican stressed that no specific medical condition prompted Benedict’s decision to become the first pontiff to resign. Still, Benedict said his advanced age meant he no longer had the necessary mental and physical strength to lead the world’s more than one billion Roman Catholics.
The Pope had acknowledged having suffered a hemorrhagic stroke in 1991 that temporarily affected his vision, but he later made a full recovery. In 2009, the pope fell and suffered minor injuries when he broke one of his wrists while vacationing in the Alps. A doctor familiar with the Pope’s medical team told The Associated Press that the pontiff had no grave or life-threatening illnesses. But, the doctor said, the Pope, like many men his age, had suffered some prostate problems. Beyond that, the Pope was simply old and tired but he did not need to resign, the doctor said on condition of anonymity.
