Benedict’s skin infection getting better

Secretary says it was very painful, but is now subsiding.

The infection that 93-year-old Benedict XVI has on his face is subsiding, according to the personal secretary of the pope emeritus.

On a visit to his hometown, Archbishop Georg Gänswein told a German newspaper that the dosage of the medication Benedict was taking has been reduced, as the “illness is subsiding.”

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Gänswein said that the pain was intense — something “I do not wish for my worst enemy” — and that it had started after the death of the emeritus pope’s older brother, Georg.

“Whilst very unpleasant and painful, the illness was not life-threatening,” the archbishop said.