Benedict's condition stable, attending Mass says Bruni

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 30 - The condition of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, for whose ailing health his successor Francis has urged prayers, is stable and the 95-year-old German ex-pontiff is continuing to attend Mass in the Vatican ex-monastery he lives in, Vatican Spokesman Matteo Bruni said Friday.
    "Last night the Pope Emeritus was able to rest well. Also yesterday afternoon he participated in the celebration of Holy Mass in his room. At present his condition is stationary", said Bruni, the director of the Holy See Press Office, responding to journalists' questions.
    Bruni said Thursday that Benedict was alert and lucid.
    Sources have said the first German pope in 1,000 years, spent the night under the constant control of his doctors and their monitoring of his condition would continue unabated.
    Pope Francis on Wednesday asked the faithful to pray for his predecessor, who he said was "very sick".
    Speaking at the end of his weekly general audience in the Vatican, Francis asked for a "special prayer" for Benedict, who became the first pope to resign in 600 years when he stepped down due to ill health on February 11, 2013.
    The man born Joseph Ratzinger. who had taken over from Polish pope Saint John Paul II on April 19, 2005, is reportedly suffering from increasing respiratory problems.
    His last published photos, on the occasion of a prizegiving for the two winners of his Ratzinger Foundation theology prize on December 1, show a man slumped in his chair, visibly thinner, weak and very fatigued. (ANSA).