A personal look at Pope Benedict

Nient’altro che la verità. La mia vita al fianco di Benedetto XVI
[Nothing but the Truth. My Life with Benedict XVI]
Georg Gänswein and Saverio Gaeta
Mondadori
2023
334 pages
ISBN 9788856690392

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“Accepto. Benedictus”. With these simple words: “I accept; Benedict” Joseph Ratzinger became Pope in 2005, and took the name of Benedict.

Archbishop Georg Gänswein, his secretary since 2003, with the help of Saverio Gaetta, a Vatican journalist, has written a memoir called “Nient’altro che la verità,” (Nothing but the Truth) dealing with his life alongside Joseph Ratzinger, which will be a must-read for many who would like to hear about the “real” Pope Benedict.

Early days

The book begins with a look at Ratzinger’s arrival in Rome in 1981 as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He explains that the Cardinal had requested that if he took on the job, he would still be able to publish theology. Gänswein explains that Ratzinger felt that if he didn’t publish, he would be quite uneasy, psychologically pressurised. Naturally the request was granted, and thankfully “the rest is history”.

Gänswein points to the complementarity between the theological clarity of Ratzinger and the philosophical questioning of Wojtyla. The differences between them (the Assisi prayer meeting in 1986, for instance) did not hamper their co-operation. They trusted one another.

Election and papacy

Much of what he tells of the election is well known, though there are some fresh details. Gänswein was inside the conclave as assistant to Ratzinger, Dean of the College of Cardinals. Just before the fateful ballot, after lunch in Santa Marta, the Cardinal asked Gänswein to accompany him on foot to the Sistine Chapel, rather than taking the special bus. It was cold and the two walked in silence; it was clear the Cardinal had no interest in conversation. For Gänswein it was the longest and most tiring walk of his life. Ratzinger seemed to him to be walking towards the edge of a cliff.

Chapter Four has a run through of the daily routine in the papal apartments: rising at 6 am, followed by Mass, prayer, and Breviary. After breakfast, Gänswein dealt with the mail, while the Pope read the summary of the international press. They then planned the day, went to the second storey for private audiences or to the Paul VI Hall or the Square for larger crowds. Lunch was at 1:30 p.m., followed by a walk, siesta, and the working audiences with heads of the various congregations, one or two per day. Later, at 6:45 p.m., they said the Rosary in the Vatican Gardens, near the Lourdes Grotto. At 7:30 p.m.  they had dinner, watched the news, and then the Pope retired to his room to read and pray, while Gänswein kept abreast of the correspondence and other pending issues, for the next day. Sunday was more easy-going, with a film (Don Camillo for instance) or some classical music in the afternoon, and sometimes the Pope would play Mozart or Schubert on the piano.

Every morning the Pope received a long list of intentions to remember at Mass and often would ask his secretaries later: “what news do you have about that person that you mentioned?” Sometimes Gänswein had to explain that he or she had died. The Pope would stop and recite the prayer for the deceased. It wasn’t just remembering; it was being present to the faithful.

Looking at Benedict’s Papacy

Vatileaks became a big stumbling block for the Papacy; Gänswein worked closely with Paolo Gabriele, the butler who took papers from Pope Benedict; in fact, he offered his resignation to Pope Benedict which was rejected; but Gänswein managed to visit Gabriele before his death, and there was a reconciliation. Pope Benedict had already given him a Christmas pardon, visiting him in the Vatican prison.

He points to the various misunderstandings which arose: the Regensburg address, which eventually gave rise to a growing dialogue with Islam: the invitation to speak at La Sapienza University in Rome which Benedict eventually had to pass up due to protests, sending on his unaltered address to the University, as a gesture to academic freedom; and the Williamson affair, involving the removal of the excommunication of the four bishops ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre, which blew up in his face as Williamson’s rather strange views came to light, and for which oversight the Pope apologised – although it was probably the fault of whoever ought to have done the background work.

For Gänswein, the pontificate of Pope Benedict is above all Christocentric. Christ was at the centre of his thinking, reflected in the three-volume Jesus of Nazareth which he wrote in his spare time as Pontiff and which forms part of his theological legacy. Christ is alive, not a figure from dim and distant past, he is the grain of wheat which dies and brings forth much fruit. Gänswein quotes helpfully from Jesus of Nazareth to the effect that two articles of faith mentioned there: the virgin birth and the Resurrection, are a scandal to the modern spirit for they show that God is God, with power over matter. This is the source of the new creation in the conception and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Gänswein looks at the encyclicals and other writings and selects Spe salvi as his own desert island book, for it opens up answers to the questions that people have always been and will always be asking: what may we hope for? What does Christianity really have to offer us?

The resignation

He then moves to Pope Benedict’s resignation. Gänswein was clearly not consulted by the Holy Father, but he had noticed, a different style in the Holy Father’s physical posture even as he prayed; less formal, more bowed down, head in hands. He was made aware of the decision in September 2012, and while he tried to persuade him to change his mind, he realised the Pope was not for turning.

Benedict told Gänswein of his decision to live in the monastery Mater Ecclesiae, in the Vatican Gardens. So he and Archbishop Becciu, then the substitute in the Secretariat of State, made a surreptitious evening visit to the premises, scoping out what might need to be done to it. People noticed the building works in the following months, but the word was that Cardinal Bertone was preparing it for his retirement home!

After the announcement had been made, Gänswein speaks of Benedict’s Ash Wednesday homily two days later, about the temptations of Christ in the desert and how they help us to ask: what place does God truly have in my life? The following day he met with the priests of Rome, to reflect on the Second Vatican Council. For an hour he spoke, without a note, about the Council of the Fathers and the Council of the media, and how the true Council was and will be able to find its way and become the true renewal of the Church.

The Lenten retreat for the Pope and his collaborators was given by Cardinal Ravasi, who had been secretly tipped off in advance about the resignation. Ravasi spoke of Moses on the hill, interceding with arms outstretched for the Israelites in battle below and compared it to Pope Benedict’s intercession for the Church – a theme which emerged in Benedict’s subsequent addresses.

The final days of the pontificate were a confusion of emotion and intensity, which ended with them watching the news in Castelgandolfo. Pope Benedict followed the conclave in prayer for his successor and was touched when Pope Francis telephoned him immediately afterwards.

The two Popes

The rapport between them was very good. It began with lunch on 23 March when Francis visited Castelgandolfo and received the dossier of three specially appointed cardinals about Vatileaks from Benedict, and presumably the draft of Lumen fidei, which, while written mostly by Benedict, became Pope Francis’s first encyclical. He was touched by finding Pope Francis at the door of Mater Ecclesiae monastery on his return from Castelgandolfo to take up residence. There were dinners, with exchange of limoncello made by Ratzinger’s Memores (the Communione e Liberazione staff who looked after and formed part of the Mater Ecclesiae family) and dulce de leche, the famous Argentinian dessert.

Pope Francis asked Benedict for a comment on his first major interview, with La Civiltà Cattolica. He quickly offered his reflections a few days later to the effect that he agreed with everything Pope Francis had said and added two complementary comments, regarding contraception and homosexuality.

Were there disagreements? Yes, but for Gänswein they didn’t add up to much: Pope Benedict was puzzled by some lines of Evangelii Gaudium which seemed to downplay the importance of doctrinal orthodoxy but he gave his successor the benefit of the doubt, as he felt he had been offered to himself in regard to his own priorities and statements. He was surprised by a footnote in Amoris Laetitia, on the family, which, instead of simply giving a reference, added some new content. And, of course he was not convinced by Traditionis custodes, in which Pope Francis limited the scope of Pope Benedict’s liberalising of the celebration of the traditional Roman Rite. He felt this step might marginalise people who were attached to it and endanger the liturgical peace which had been established. But he pointed out that it is up to the ruling Pontiff to make such decisions, with a view to the good of the Church.

Life in the monastery

The book concludes with the daily routine in the monastery which he defines as a “busy silence”. Benedict read a lot (Gregory the Great, Augustine, Guardini, Erik Peterson) wrote and preached (Gänswein offers quite a few extracts from his Sunday homilies). Sunday was a bit more cultural: classical music or a book read aloud, especially in later years (Pope Benedict was fond of hearing Cardinal Pell’s prison diaries). The diet was classical Mediterranean, with lots of fish and vegetables, but Sunday dinner was Bavarian black bread, sausage and, obviously, a splash of beer!

Gänswein left to visit his family on 27 December but was called back as the Pope’s health had suddenly declined. At three in the morning of 31 December Pope Benedict turned to the crucifix and said Signore, ti amo! (Lord, I love you). Gänswein had been given clear instructions to destroy Pope Benedict’s  private papers, no ifs or buts.

A readable, objective, and interesting look behind the scenes of history, with an English version hopefully in the works.