Benedict underwent a small heart surgical procedure

Papa Benedicto XVI

Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman confirmed yesterday that Pope Benedict XVI recently underwent a slight intervention to change the batteries of his pacemaker “that he has for a log time.”

“It was not a complicated intervention, rather the opposite, it was an absolutely normal, was only routine,” said Lombardi.

According to the spokesman, Benedict XVI had the pacemaker before being elected Pope, since he was a Cardinal. This time, the procedure was  to replace the pacemaker, almost three months ago.

It is also known that fifteen years ago, when Joseph Ratzinger was a Cardinal, he had three small strokes without consequences, but they developed a genetic weakness.

In a book published in 2010, he said he would not hesitate to become the first pontiff to resign willingly in more than 700 years if he felt he could no longer “physically, psychologically and spiritually”  govern the Catholic Church.

Once he leaves the papacy, Joseph Ratzinger will retire at the residence of Castel Gandolfo until the reforms of the convent of cloistered nuns in the Vatican are completed, where he will live without the nuns.