Benedict XVI, 95, who abdicated in 2013, photographed in the Vatican gardens

The 95-year-old Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI strolling through the Vatican Gardens, in one of his most recent photographs. As you can see from this picture from the Joseph Ratzinger Foundation, Benedict, though very frail, is nonetheless in tolerable health for a man of his venerable age.

Let me remind you that Benedict XVI abdicated the papal throne in 2013 and became the first Pope to resign. Since then he has been styled Pope Emeritus and lives in the Vatican.

Most curious of all, the Catholic world contains a rather sizeable party that does not recognise Francis I as Pope of Rome, calling him simply Cardinal Bergoglio, and considers Benedict XVI the only Pope now living.

Report a translation error

September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Benedict XVI, 95, who abdicated in 2013, photographed in the Vatican gardens

Read more

September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s