Vatican: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s last words were “Lord, I love you,” his long-time secretary said, quoting a nurse who helped care for the 95-year-old former pontiff in his final hours. Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, a German prelate who lived in the Vatican monastery where Benedict took up residence after his 2013 retirement, said the nurse recounted hearing Benedict utter those words at about 3am on Saturday.

 

The retired pope died later that morning. “Benedict XVI, with a faint voice but in a very distinct way, said in Italian, ‘Lord, I love you,’” Archbishop Gaenswein told the Vatican’s official media, adding that it happened when the aides tending to Benedict were changing shifts. “I wasn’t there in that moment, but the nurse a little later recounted it,” the archbishop said. “They were his last comprehensible words, because afterwards, he wasn’t able to express himself anymore.”

 

Archbishop Gaenswein did not identify the male nurse who shared the information. Earlier, the Vatican said that Pope Francis went to pay his respects immediately after Archbishop Gaenswein called to inform him of Benedict’s death shortly after 9.30am on Saturday. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Francis stayed in Benedict’s monastery for quite some time before returning to his residence in a hotel located across the Vatican Gardens.