What's Retired Pope Benedict XVI's Net Worth? He's Reportedly 'Very Sick'

During his weekly address on Dec. 28, 2022, Pope Francis asked people to pray for retired Pope Benedict XVI, who is reportedly very sick.

“I would like to ask all of you for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict, who, in silence, is sustaining the Church,” Pope Francis said during his address. “He is very sick, asking the Lord to console and sustain him in this witness of love for the Church, until the end.”

Pope Benedict retired from his post in 2013, during a time when the Vatican faced scrutiny for a sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. He was the first pope to resign in over 600 years. What's Pope Benedict's net worth? Keep reading to find out.

Some estimates show Pope Benedict has a net worth of about $2.5 million. After he stepped down as the head of the Catholic Church, he continued to receive a monthly pension of about $3,300, CNBC reported in 2013.

The church also covered the retired pope’s housing and living expenses, such as his meals and housekeepers, CNBC reports. Pope Benedict has been living at a monastery in Vatican City since his retirement, The New York Times reports.

Pope Benedict’s health played a part in his unexpected resignation in 2013. He was almost 86 at the time, and he cited a “lack of strength of mind and body” as his reasons for stepping back from the role.

“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” Pope Benedict said in a 2013 statement.

The Vatican later issued a statement that Pope Benedict wasn’t suffering from a specific illness but wanted to avoid the “exhausting rush of Easter engagements.”

Benedict was the first pope to step down as head of the Catholic Church since Gregory XII in 1415. Usually, the pope remains in his post until their death.

Formerly known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he took on the title of Pope Benedict XVI when he was elected to the church’s top seat in 2005 after the death of Pope John Paul II. Benedict was considered more conservative in his religious and social views but occasionally took more liberal stands on subjects such as environmental protection, the Times reports.

Since his retirement, Pope Benedict has mostly kept out of the public eye, preferring to dedicate his time to prayer and meditation. When he turned 93 in September 2020, he became the longest-living pope in church history.

Pope Benedict turned 95 in April, and his private secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, told Vatican News that he was “in good spirits.”

“He is, of course, physically relatively weak and frail, but lucid,” Gänswein told the Vatican-controlled news outlet.

Regarding his recent health, a Vatican spokesman said Benedict’s health has “deteriorated in recent hours due to advancing age,” the Times reports. Doctors are constantly monitoring his health to keep it under control, the spokesman said.