Pope Benedict XVI’s private secretary (19272022), Georg Gaenswein, said on Sunday (19) that five heirs appear in his will, Italian news agency Ansa reported. They must confirm whether they will accept the bequest, which consists of funds from the Pope’s personal account.
Gänswein said he found the case “interesting”. “I thought he had two relatives, two cousins, but there are five. By law, I have to write to them, who are the next of kin, and ask whether they accept the inheritance or not,” he said.
He claims that everything related to the intellectual work and copyright of Benedict 16 has already been settled, as have personal items that are donated.
Gänswein spoke to journalists after saying mass at the church where the Pope was titular cardinal. “He felt at home in this church, in the family, as the father of a beautiful, large, and fruitful family,” he said. Gänswein donated to the church a cassock that belonged to the former head of the Catholic Church.
The pope died on December 31 at the age of 95 in a monastery where he lived in the Vatican. Days earlier, Pope Francis had asked for prayers and said his predecessor was very ill.
The last known pictures of him are from a Ratzinger Foundation event on the 1st of this month, where he appears seated and demonstrating fragility.
The German Joseph Ratzinger was the first pope in almost six centuries to resign after eight years of pontificate since Gregory 12, 1415, a pope has not left the head of the Catholic Church alone. In a letter to his biographer published in January this year, he wrote that the insomnia that plagued him was one of the main reasons that led to his resignation from the pontificate nearly a decade ago.
Days after the death, Pope Francis celebrated the funeral of his predecessor, an unprecedented event in the modern history of the Catholic Church, not finding a precedent until 1802, when Pius VII celebrated the funeral of Pius VI. performed, who died in 1799.
(FOLHAPRESS)
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