Months after dropping from public view and becoming the modern era’s first Pontiff Emeritus, Benedict XVI is reportedly in poor health.  The Vatican is denying his condition is critical.

But recent visitors say that after a hiatus at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo before moving into a converted monastery on the edge of the Vatican gardens last month, Benedict XVI’s physical condition has deteriorated.  Some say his stature is half that from his early says as Pope.

“I was shocked at how thin he had become,” said Cologne, Germany’s archbishop Cardinal Joachim Meisner.  Spanish reporter Paloma Gomez opined, “We won't have him with us much longer.”

The last pope to resign before Benedict was Gregory XII in the 1400s, meaning that there is no protocol for dealing with or reporting on the physical state of a former pontiff, especially one who has vowed to stay out of the public eye so as not to encroach on his successor, Pope Francis.