Pope Benedict XVI waves as he arrives for his weekly general audience on February 8, 2012 at Paul VI hall at the Vatican.
Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images
Like something out of The Borgias, the Italian and German press have uncovered a letter detailing private remarks Cardinal Paulo Romeo of Palermo made last November that Pope Benedict XVI had but twelve months to live (raising cries of a conspiracy to assassinate the Pope), that Milan’s archbishop would be his likely successor, and that the Holy See’s Secretary of State had fallen out of favor (a sign of a power struggle within the Vatican). [Telegraph UK]
