Benedict Contradicts Himself: "The Reigning Pope Has Possiblitiy To Forbid Roman Mass"
• As John Paul II lay dying, Cardinal Ratzinger watched the Curia prelates fight among themselves for power, and Benedict later resigned partly because he did not want to "end up like him."
• Cardinal Sodano disagreed with Benedict's choice of Tarcisio Bertone as his successor as Secretary of State for lacking diplomatic experience. Gänswein calls Cardinal Bertone an inefficient and absent Secretary of State who mishandled the problems of the Vatican's bank.
• When Benedict told Gänswein in September 2012 that he will resign, Gänswein tried to convince him to slow down rather then step down. Benedict refused and began thinking of the best timing for such a step which turned out to be the worst.
• Gänswein repeatedly stresses that Benedict resigned of his own free will and in full awareness.
• Benedict had the "naïve" hope that Gänswein would be the link between him and his successor, but already after a few months, "I had the impression that between me and the new pope a climate of trust had not been created.”
• After Francis called Benedict a "wise grandfather," Benedict retorted, "I'm only 9 years older than him."
• After giving a long interview to a Jesuit magazine in 2013, Francis asked Benedict for his comments, who in an annotated response criticised how Francis had spoken about abortion and homosexuality.
• Benedict was “surprised” that Francis ignored the 2016 Dubia of the four Cardinals on Amoris Laetitia.
• Gänswein calls Cardinal Sarah's 2020 Twitter.com statements that Benedict XVI was the co-author of his book on celibacy “inopportune.” Sarah wanted Benedict XVI to sign a January 2020 press statement on the book-saga but he refused.
• Gänswein asked Benedict in 2021 what he thought about Francis’ decision to “forbid” the Roman Rite, and he replied that “the reigning pope has the responsibility to make decisions like this and must act according to what he believes is the good of the Church, but on a personal level, he saw it as a definite change of course and believed it was a mistake.”
• Benedict always was saddened by attempts to portray him and Francis as opponents, “especially when the observation came from within the Vatican.”
• Benedict gave Gänswein written instruction to destroy all private notices after death, like John Paul II whose wish was disregarded by his secretary.
Picture: © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk, CC BY-NC-ND, #newsSfpeuxlvry
