Pope Benedict is struggling with paralysis

berlin - The former Pope Benedict suffers from a disease of the nervous system, which means he increasingly has to use a wheelchair. That is what his brother Georg Ratzinger told the German magazine Neue Post.

The ninety-year-old Pope Emeritus said earlier this month that he is in his final phase of life and on 'pilgrimage home'. He was the first pope in six centuries to drop the office prematurely.

'The biggest fear is that the paralysis reaches its heart at some point. Then it can soon be over '', said his brother.

The retired Pope lives in a former abbey in the gardens of the Vatican. He is rarely seen in public.