(LifeSiteNews) — What if the moment that convinced Pope Benedict XVI to resign wasn’t simply exhaustion — but a mysterious fall he couldn’t even remember, leaving his handkerchief drenched in blood?
In a powerful new interview, I sat down with international human rights attorney Elizabeth Yore to examine one of the most startling revelations about the final years of Pope Benedict’s pontificate. Drawing from a private, confidential letter Benedict wrote to his longtime biographer Peter Seewald — kept hidden until after the death of Pope Benedict XVI and first reported in German media — we learn the shocking details of a head injury during his 2012 apostolic journey to Mexico and Cuba.
In the letter dated October 28, 2022, Benedict himself described the incident: “I must have bumped into something in the bathroom and fallen.” He recounted waking up the next morning, reaching for his handkerchief as usual, and finding it “totally soaked with blood.” He had no memory of the fall itself. Apparently, a Vatican surgeon quietly treated the wound so that public appearances could continue without alarm.
Liz and I discussed Italian journalist Andrea Cionci’s analysis of this event. Cionci points out that the sudden amnesia combined with heavy bleeding from what appeared to be a relatively minor incident aligns with symptoms of an overdose or interference involving the strong sedatives Benedict was already taking for the chronic insomnia that had plagued him for years. Cionci believes it may point to deliberate poisoning aimed at destabilizing the Pope.
READ: Liz Yore: Globalists used NSA spying, SWIFT, ‘Catholic Spring’ to force out Benedict XVI
Crucially, Benedict tied this period of extreme frailty directly to his resignation. The letter makes clear that the central motive was the insomnia that had accompanied him “uninterrupted since the World Youth Day in Cologne” in 2005. Medications that once helped maintain his availability had reached their limits. The fall became a stark turning point. His personal physician urged reductions in sleep aids and restrictions on future travel. Even though there is no need for a Pope to travel, Benedict said he wanted to resign before World Youth Day in Rio, thus before Easter 2013.
Yore connects these and other pressures on Benedict to resign to the broader geopolitical pressures surrounding Benedict’s 2012 trip. In Cuba, Benedict did not receive the red-carpet treatment. He criticized Marxism, stating publicly that it “no longer responds to reality.” He stood firm against compromising with communist regimes — refusing, for example, the kind of agreement with China that would later be fast-tracked under Francis. His clear opposition to legitimizing communism made him an obstacle.
Then came the resignation.
Almost immediately, the diplomatic landscape shifted. As Mother Jones reported, Pope Francis played a central role in secret negotiations to normalize U.S.-Cuba relations. He sent personal letters to President Obama and Raúl Castro, hosted high-level talks at the Vatican, and helped broker the historic thaw announced in December 2014.
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Francis visited Cuba in 2015. Obama followed shortly after. Two papal visits to Cuba in three years — one critical of the regime, the next far more accommodating. As Yore went through this history, I couldn’t help wondering aloud about our current situation. A sitting “American Pope” somehow couldn’t find time to visit the United States for its major 250th anniversary celebrations, and yet two Popes visited Cuba within a three-year span.
The rehabilitation of communism accelerated. The Vatican-China agreement, first signed by Francis in 2018 and renewed multiple times even under Leo XIV, has proven disastrous for the underground Church. Just last week, on April 15, 2026, Human Rights Watch released its report “China: Pressure on Catholics Escalates.” It details how the deal has given the Chinese Communist Party a powerful tool to crush underground communities, force Catholics into the state-controlled Patriotic Association, intensify surveillance, arrests, church demolitions, and ideological “Sinicization.” Authorities now tell detained clergy that “the Vatican has ordered you to join” the Patriotic Association. The agreement, HRW notes, has become “the most intelligent weapon to legally destroy underground churches.”
Yore tells us: Benedict was in the way. His unwavering defense of the Faith against Marxist ideology and communist regimes made him a target for the globalists — whether through health sabotage, political pressure, or both. The result was a pre-arranged candidate eager to accommodate the globalist agenda.
Yore suggests that the same forces that targeted a faithful Pope continue their work — compromising with evil regimes, pressuring the faithful, and diluting the Gospel.