Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died on December 31 at the age of 95, asked his personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Gänswein, to destroy his private writings “without exception”, according to what he himself narrates in his next book.
“There are those who have asked me what I will do, after the death of Benedict XVI, with his documents. In reality, this is not a problem for me since I have received precise instructions from him, with delivery instructions that oblige me in conscience to respect, about his library, the manuscripts of his books, the documentation about the Council and his correspondence”, writes Gänswein.
The German archbishop, Ratzinger’s closest collaborator since 2003, specified that “as far as the rest of his writings are concerned, his fate is marked.” “Private pages of all kinds must be destroyed. This must be done without exceptions and without loopholes,” he says the emeritus pontiff told him.
Gänswein will publish the book “Nient’altro che la verità” (Nothing but the truth) on January 12 to respond to “the slander and dark maneuvers” that tried “in vain” to darken the legacy of the pontiff, who died in the Vatican monastery where he lived for the last decade of his life after his historic resignation in 2013. In its pages, the German monsignor reproaches his successor, Francis, the currently “reigning” pope, for some of his decisions, such as putting a stop to the masses in Latin, something highly criticized by the most conservative sectors of the Catholic Church.
Relegated to take care of Ratzinger
He also regrets that he was removed from his side despite being the prefect of the Papal Household, in charge of the pontiffs’ agenda, and that from one day to the next he entrusted him with the task of taking care of Ratzinger in his retirement in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery. “From now on, stay at home, accompany Benedicto, who needs you, and act as a shield for him,” he says Francisco told him and confesses that he was left “shocked and speechless.” When he tried to retort, telling Francis that he had been doing it for seven years and that he could continue doing it, the Pope replied that he was still a prefect but that, from the next day, he would not work again. Back at the monastery, he remembers that, when he told Ratzinger, he told him, in an ironic tone: “It seems that Pope Francis no longer trusts me and he wants you to be my guardian.”
Among many other things, Gänswein confirms and laments in his pages the existence of currents or “fans” (he uses the term “tifoserie”, in Italian soccer fans) within the Vatican. “In effect, I believe that the most correct analysis should indicate as a problem, not so much the coexistence of two Popes, one reigning and the other emeritus, but the birth and development of two fans, since with the passage of time (Ratzinger) realizes more and more that they were indeed two visions of the Church”, he affirms.
And he adds: “These two fans – each one based on affirmations, gestures or impressions about the attitude of Francis and Benedict, moreover often with entirely gratuitous inventions – have created that tension that later reverberated on those who were not sufficiently aware of ecclesiastical dynamics.
when he decided to quit
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At another point in the book, the man who was his personal secretary reveals that it was Benedict XVI’s trip to World Youth Day in Madrid in 2011 that triggered the first reflections on the possibility of renouncing the pontificate, but that the decision he took it during the apostolic trip to Mexico and Cuba, between March 23 and 29, 2012, after he tripped over a doormat while he was in the bathroom shaving, which caused him to fall backwards and hit his head on the countertop. The shower.
In the last decade, the coexistence of two popes, one reigning and the other emeritus or retired, has given rise to two currents and the most conservative wing has often resorted to the legacy of Benedict XVI to attack Francis, although both always expressed respect reciprocal.