Vatican confirms press report in first official acknowledgement that pontiff has a pacemakerPope Benedict XVI underwent surgery to replace the batteries in his pacemaker three months before announcing the first papal resignation for nearly 600 years, the Vatican has confirmed.Responding to a report in the Italian press that said the operation had been carried out in great secrecy at the Pius XI clinic in Rome, the Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the surgery had been routine and unconnected to Benedict's decision to step down.It was reportedly the first official acknowledgement that the 85-year-old pontiff has a pacemaker, a fact already known to some Vatican observers.Lombardi insisted, as he did on Monday, that the pope's shock resignation had not been prompted by any specific illness.