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Former pope Benedict, who Pope Francis said on Wednesday was “very sick”, resigned in 2013, the first pontiff in 600 years to take such a step rather than rule for life.

For nearly 25 years, the former pope, then known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was the powerful head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). As a theological conservative, Mr Ratzinger left Germany and his post as archbishop of Munich in 1982 to head the CDF.

His disciplining of Latin American priests who promoted Marxist-influenced Liberation Theology bestowed him with the sobriquet “God’s Rottweiler”.

The Catholic Archbishop of Westminster has said that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI will be remembered as “one of the great theologians of the 20th century”, as the 95-year-old former pontiff’s health worsens.

Speaking on Times Radio, Cardinal Vincent Nichols said: “I met Pope Benedict on quite a number of occasions, and he was a very sensitive, a very thoughtful person, who was a great theologian.

“He will be remembered as one of the great theologians of the 20th century.

“But he was always so courteous. When he came to this country in 2011 he was described as ‘God’s Rottweiler’, but by the time he left I think he was considered to be everybody’s great uncle.

“There was a real gentleness about him, and when I saw him just over a year ago, September last year, that hadn’t changed. He was very very weak, but very bright and very alert and very with it.

“It’s not surprising that his life would appear to be coming to an end, he is 95 and he has been poorly for quite a long time.”

The Catholic Archbishop of Westminster has said he believes that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s historic decision to resign from his post due to advancing age in 2013 will remain “an exception”.

Speaking on Times Radio, Cardinal Vincent Nichols also described the “great affinity” between the former pope and the late Queen, and his admiration for her continuing royal duties until the end.

On the former pope Benedict resigning his post, he said: “This is the first time in 600 years, so who knows what might develop. I think it will remain an exception myself.

“I think there was a great affinity between Pope Benedict and her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” he added.

“When Benedict decided to come to this country, he decided that the first thing he had to do was visit the Queen. And she was 95, she held her office to the end and I think he admired that very much.

“It was a measure of his self-understanding and the difficulties he was getting into physically as well that he said no, it needs somebody else to do this.”

People in Pope Benedict XVI’s Bavarian homeland prayed Thursday for the retired pontiff, a favorite son of the region even 40 years after he left Germany for the Vatican and nearly a decade after his resignation stunned the world.

At the St. Oswald church in the small town of Marktl am Inn, where a future pope named Joseph Ratzinger was baptized more than 95 years ago, Sandra Maier, the lay head of the local congregation, put up a framed picture of Benedict, lit a red candle and arranged a small pew so parishioners could kneel and pray for him.

Maier, who was also baptized at the church, said she was “shaken and deeply moved by the news” from the Vatican on Wednesday that Benedict’s health had deteriorated. “I wish for him to have an easy time now and not suffer so much,” she said.

“We are proud here in Marktl that we have a Bavarian pope,” Maier, 50, said, recalling the two times she met him personally. “He’s a good man and was a great pope”

The German Catholic Church’s leadership called for prayers for Benedict after the Vatican’s announcement. “Pope Benedict XVI has prayed for us these many years; now let us pray for him,” said Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg, a city where Ratzinger taught at the university in the 1970s.

Bishop Stefan Oster of Passau, the diocese where Marktl is located, said Benedict was alert but physically very weak when he saw him in November. “If he is now getting even weaker, it is easy to imagine that he is on the last stretch of his earthly way,” Oster said. “Please all accompany him in prayers.”

The Vatican said Thursday that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was lucid, conscious and stable, but that his condition remains serious a day after officials revealed that the 95-year-old’s health had deteriorated recently.

A statement from Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Pope Francis asks for continued prayers “to accompany him in these difficult hours.”

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Former pope Benedict, who Pope Francis said on Wednesday was “very sick”, resigned in 2013, the first pontiff in 600 years to take such a step rather than rule for life.

For nearly 25 years, the former pope, then known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was the powerful head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). As a theological conservative, Mr Ratzinger left Germany and his post as archbishop of Munich in 1982 to head the CDF. His disciplining of Latin American priests who promoted Marxist-influenced Liberation Theology bestowed him with the sobriquet “God’s Rottweiler”.

Despite his reputation as a hardliner, his eight-year papacy was marked by missteps and scandal. He admitted a “lack of resolve in governing and decision taking.”

Read our profile of Pope Benedict from reporter Thomas Kingsley here:

Former Pope Benedict’s condition remains “grave” but stable, the Vatican has said – adding in a statement that he had rested well during the night and was lucid and aware.

“The Pope Emeritus managed to rest well during the night, he is absolutely lucid and aware, and today, even though his condition remains grave, the situation is at the moment stable,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.

“Pope Francis renews his request to pray for him and to accompany him in these difficult hours,” Bruni said of the 95-year-old former pontiff.

The statement, the second since Francis disclosed on Wednesday that his predecessor was “very sick”, did not provide any specifics about Benedict’s condition.

Cardinals from around the world have joined in prayer for Pope Benedict’s health.

Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, urged believers to ask “for the Lord’s grace to help sustain Pope Benedict as he has sustained the Church through his silent witness.”

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, asked the “Catholic faithful of the Archdiocese of New York” to join with him in prayer.

The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols prayed that God might “sustain and console him at this time”.

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk called on all those in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church to pray for the emeritus Pope.

He said: “The whole Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church wants to unite in prayer around this great witness of our times, thanking him for his silent witness as Pope Emeritus and at the same time remembering and seeking to put into practice his work for the unity of the Church, which was an extraordinary feature of his pontificate.”

Archibishop Shevchuk, who met with Benedict on 10 November, said the Pope was “incredibly lucid, informed and solicitous about the situation in Ukraine, and had assured his prayers for the Ukrainian people.”

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI shared a “great affinity” with the late Queen, the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster has said.

The 95-year-old former pope’s historic decision to resign due to age in 2013 will remain “an exception”, and he admired the Queen for continuing her royal duties until the end, according to Cardinal Vincent Nichols.

His comments came after the Vatican said the former pope’s health has worsened due to his age, and doctors are constantly monitoring his condition.

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