- Aide describes what he says were disagreements about issues
- Was succeeded in the role of gatekeeper by Pope Francis in 2020
- Book to be published just days after Benedict’s death
VATICAN CITY, Jan 6 (Portal) – (This Jan 6 report has been refiled to correct year 2013, not 2005, in paragraph 8)
Though Pope Francis often likened former Pope Benedict’s life at the Vatican to having a grandfather at home, a book by Benedict’s closest aide reveals what he says were stresses while two men in white lived in the tiny city-state.
Benedict was buried on Thursday, and hours after the funeral in St. Peter’s Square, an Italian publisher began sending journalists advance copies of Archbishop Georg Ganswein’s 330-page “Nothing but the Truth – My Life Next to Benedict XVI.”
Ganswein, 66, had been Benedict’s personal secretary since 2003, when Benedict was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and stayed by his side for almost 20 years until his death on Saturday. He was Francis’ gatekeeper until he was replaced in 2020.
In the book, slated for release on January 12, Ganswein gives an insider’s look at Benedict’s election in 2005, his 2013 decision to become the first pope to step down in 600 years, his years after the papacy, his and his illness last hours.
Although Benedict largely avoided public appearances after his resignation, he remained a standard-bearer for Catholic conservatives alienated by reforms introduced by Francis, including the crackdown on the ancient Latin mass.
Ganswein says Benedict was “surprised” that Francis never responded to a public letter from four conservative cardinals in 2016, including American Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, who accused Francis of creating confusion on moral issues.
The book also says that Benedict disagreed with some of Francis’ points of view.
After Francis gave a lengthy interview to a Jesuit journal six months after his election in 2013, Francis sent the journal to Benedict for his comments.
Ganswein says that in his annotated reply to Francis, Benedict criticized the way Francis responded to questions about abortion and homosexuality.
He also writes that Benedict felt that Francis’ decision to restrict the use of the traditionalist Latin Mass was “a mistake.”
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said he had no comment on the book, which was written with Italian journalist Saverio Gaeta and published by Piemme, a Mondadori imprint.
TWO MASTERS SERVE
For the first seven years after Francis’ election as pope, Ganswein retained his two positions – prefect of the Papal Household and private secretary to the ex-Pope.
Ganswein writes that he was never able to achieve a “climate of trust” with the new pope and that Francis probably let him keep the prefect post for so long out of respect for Benedict.
The ax fell in January 2020, when Ganswein was the focus of a chaotic episode centered around a book on priestly celibacy written primarily by conservative Cardinal Robert Sarah.
Sarah said Benedict was a co-writer. Benedikt said he wasn’t and demanded that his name be removed from the cover.
Ganswein was caught in the middle and Francis, who at the time was not pleased with how the episode was being handled, according to official Vatican sources, effectively fired Ganswein from his job as prefect.
Ganswein writes that Francis ordered him “not to come back to work tomorrow” but to look after the sick Benedict all day.
Benedict wrote two letters to Francis asking him to do or say something to clarify the situation because Ganswein was suffering and “under attack from all sides”. Francis never restored Ganswein to the post.
Ganswein wrote that on September 25, 2012, Benedict informed him that he had decided to resign — about five months before he did — and said the pope later told a handful of senior Vatican officials.
He said he tried to persuade the pope to slow down rather than resign, but Benedict didn’t want to and began pondering the best timing for an event they knew would be historic.
Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Alison Williams
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