VATICAN CITY — Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s longtime private secretary has written a tell-all guide that his writer on Monday promised would inform the reality in regards to the “blatant calumnies,” “dark maneuvers,” mysteries and scandals that sullied the repute of a pontiff finest recognized for his historic resignation.
Archbishop Georg Gaenswein’s “Nothing but the Truth: My Life Beside Pope Benedict XVI” is being revealed this month by the Piemme imprint of Italian publishing large Mondadori, based on a press launch.
Benedict died Saturday at age 95 and his physique was placed on show Monday in St. Peter’s Basilica forward of a Thursday funeral to be celebrated by his successor, Pope Francis.
Gaenswein, a 66-year-old German priest, stood by Benedict’s facet for practically three many years, first as an official working for then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then beginning in 2003 as Ratzinger’s private secretary.
Gaenswein adopted his boss to the Apostolic Palace as secretary when Ratzinger was elected pope in 2005. And in probably the most memorable photos of Benedict’s ultimate day as pope Feb. 28, 2013, Gaenswein wept as he accompanied Benedict via the frescoed halls of the Vatican, saying goodbye.
He remained Benedict’s gatekeeper, confidant and protector throughout a decade-long retirement, whereas additionally serving till just lately because the prefect of Francis’ papal family. It was Gaenswein who carried out the anointing of the sick final Wednesday, when Benedict’s well being deteriorated, and it was he who referred to as Francis on Saturday to inform him that Benedict had died.
According to Piemme, Gaenswein’s guide incorporates “a personal testimony about the greatness of a mild man, a fine scholar, a cardinal and a pope who made the history of our time.” But it stated the guide additionally contained a first-hand account that may appropriate some “misunderstood” elements of the preach in addition to the machinations of the Vatican.
“Today, after the death of the pope emeritus, the time has come for the current prefect of the papal household to tell his own truth about the blatant calumnies and dark maneuvers that have tried in vain to cast shadows on the German pontiff’s magisterium and actions,” the press launch stated.
Gaenswein’s account would “finally make known the true face of one of the greatest protagonists of recent decades, too often unjustly denigrated by critics as ‘Panzerkardinal’ or ‘God’s Rottweiler,’” it stated, referring to some widespread media nicknames for the German recognized for his conservative, doctrinaire bent.
Specifically, the writer stated Gaenswein would deal with the “Vatileaks” scandal, through which Benedict’s personal butler leaked his private correspondence to a journalist, in addition to clergy intercourse abuse scandals and one of many enduring mysteries of the Vatican, the 1983 disappearance of the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican worker, Emanuela Orlandi.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”