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A bloody incident during his apostolic journey to Mexico and Cuba in 2012 led to Benedict resigning in 2013, Focus magazine wrote, citing a letter that Benedik wrote to his biographer Peter Seewald before his death.
The letter states literally that the “central motive” for the resignation “was the insomnia that has accompanied me uninterruptedly since World Youth Day in Cologne”. World Youth Day in Cologne took place in August 2005. The “strong remedies” that his personal physician at the time prescribed without hesitation worked initially and guaranteed his “availability” as pope.
According to “Focus”, Benedikt wrote to Seewald that the drugs had soon “reached their limits” and were “less and less able to ensure” its availability. After all, a serious incident occurred during his apostolic journey to Mexico and Cuba in March 2012. The morning after the first night he grabbed his handkerchief. This was “totally soaked with blood”.
“I must have bumped into something in the bathroom and fell,” quoted the “Focus” from the letter from the Pope Emeritus. A surgeon knew how to treat the matter “thank God” in such a way that the injuries were not visible. After this accident, his new personal doctor pushed for a “reduction in sleeping pills” and insisted that Benedict should only appear in public on future trips abroad in the mornings.
Benedict went on to say that it was clear to him that these medically justified restrictions “could only apply for a short time”. Because the next major trip abroad, World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, was to take place in July 2013 and Benedict knew that he would no longer be able to “manage” this date, he planned his resignation so early that after Rio a “new pope” would be able to travel.
According to “Focus”, Benedikt emphasized in the letter to Seewald that he would come to this decision again today after “sober and thoughtful consideration”. At that time he was no longer able to adequately exercise the office of the representative of Jesus Christ.
It had been known for a long time that Benedict had explained his historic step of resigning for health reasons and justified the point in time with the upcoming World Youth Day. So far, however, the German Pope has not had any serious sleep problems during the pontificate.
Source: Nachrichten
