Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI will not attend this year's Ratzinger
Schülerkreis, the annual meeting of his former theology students that he
founded in 1977, according to its president, Fr Stephen Otto Horn.A retired theology professor from Germany and a post-doctoral student of Joseph Ratzinger at the University of Regensburg in the 1970s, Fr Horn said that the Pope Emeritus seemed frail but mentally "fresh" during an hour-long meeting to discuss the conference.
This will be the first time Benedict XVI will not attend the Schülerkreis, which is to meet at Castel Gandolfo from 29 August to 2 September.
Fr Horn said that Benedict XVI had nevertheless chosen the symposium's speaker and topic: "The question of God against the background of secularisation".