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(CNN) --
Pope Francis said Wednesday that his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, is "very ill" and asked for prayers for the 95-year-old former pontiff.
“I want to ask everyone for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict who supports the Church in his silence.
He is very sick,” Francis said during his general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday.
"We ask the Lord to console him and sustain him in this testimony of love for the Church until the end."
In 2013, Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world by making the almost unprecedented decision to resign his position citing "advanced age."
Benedict's announcement marked the first time a pope had resigned in nearly 600 years.
The last pope to resign before his death was Gregory XII, who resigned in 1415 to end a civil war within the Catholic Church in which more than one man claimed to be pope.
Benedict XVI
