Not even CEO Marina Berlusconi was able to stop the publication of the book by the former private secretary of Pope Benedict XVI.
Archbishop Georg Gänswein, private secretary to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died on December 31, apparently tried to allow the speedy publication of the book “Nient’altro che la verità” (Nothing but the truth) about his life alongside the German pontiff to Stop. The German weekly Die Tagespost reported that he had risen to the top of the Mondadori book publishing house, owned by the family of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Mondadori is run by Marina Berlusconi, the eldest daughter of the former prime minister, and is the controller of the Italian publishing house Piemme, which published Gänswein’s book yesterday. Neither Berlusconi’s daughter nor co-author Saverio Gaeta were able to stop the book from being published. According to “Tagespost”, the book was already very deep in the distribution channels.
Piemme distributed individual chapters of the book to selected journalists immediately after Benedict’s death, asking them to report the contents in advance. The private secretary’s notes contained some details about the relationship between Pope Francis and the emeritus. In the comments, these were interpreted as attacks against Francis.
The book will also be published in German.
An open letter from several Italian priests was published last week urging Gänswein to discontinue the book. Attacks on Francis “would do great damage to the unity of the Church,” argued the perpetrator, Alberto Varinelli, according to media reports on Sunday. “As Pope Benedict XVI did when he resigned, you examine your conscience very carefully and repeatedly before God, and if this text turns out to be a conglomeration of resentment and attack, then immediately stop printing and selling the book. That would be a gesture noble of a bishop who is on the side of the truth and does not give in to the temptation of resentment”.
The book will be published in German in the coming months by Herder Verlag, which has previously published numerous works by Pope Benedict XVI. “We hope it will be at the end of February,” Herder managing director Simon Biallowons told Cologne’s Domradio on Thursday. “The highest priority is accuracy and quality. We translate. We are very happy with the honor of being able to publish this book.”
Pope Francis personally received Archbishop Gänswein on Monday. The subject of conversation may have been the professional future of the 66-year-old coach. According to his own statements, Gänswein was made by Benedict XVI. employed as executor.
(APA)