Pope Benedict RESIGNING

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2020-11/paolo-gabriele-butler-benedict-xvi-death.html

Pope Benedict XVI's former butler, Paolo Gabriele, dies aged 54
24 November 2020, 15:28

Paolo Gabriele died on Tuesday after a long illness, leaving behind a wife and three children.
By Vatican News

Paolo Gabriele, the former butler of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, died on Tuesday after a long illness, aged 54.

After several years of service to the Holy See as part of the Pontifical Family, Mr. Gabriele, in 2012, became the protagonist of the first “Vatileaks”, the theft of confidential documents later published in a book.
 
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/benedict-xvis-former-butler-paolo-gabriele-dies-at-age-54-92436
Benedict XVI’s former 'Vatileaks' butler Paolo Gabriele dies at age 54

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-11/pope-emeritus-news-cardinals-visit-consistory.html

The Pope and the new Cardinals visit Benedict XVI
28 November 2020, 19:30

Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, greeted and blessed the 13 new Cardinals whom he met in the chapel of the “Mater Ecclesiae” monastery in the Vatican after the consistory.

Following the celebration of Saturday afternoon’s Ordinary Public Consistory, which took place in St. Peter's Basilica, "the Holy Father and the 11 new cardinals present in Rome visited Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI.”

According to a statement released by the Holy See Press Office, the meeting took place in the chapel of the Mater Ecclesiae monastery inside the Vatican "in an atmosphere of affection”, during which the cardinals were introduced individually to the Pope Emeritus.

The statement also said that Benedict XVI expressed his joy for the visit and, after the recitation of the “Salve Regina” blessed them.
 
Video at the link below--
https://twitter.com/EWTNVatican
EWTN Vatican@EWTNVatican·5h
📹VIDEO | Pope Francis and new cardinals visited Benedict XVI at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican today after a cardinal-creating consistory in St Peter’s Basilica. Images: Vatican Media

Video, with English commentary, at the link below--
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-11/pope-francis-homily-consistory-new-cardinals.html
Pope urges new cardinals to stay on the Lord’s road
28 November 2020, 16:52

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2020-11/vatican-new-cardinals-biography-consistory.html
The Church’s new cardinals – who’s who?
28 November 2020, 16:50

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/archbishop-gnswein-pope-benedict-xvi-has-not-lost-his-voice-64589

Benedict XVI has not lost his voice, says Archbishop Gänswein

Vatican City, Dec 4, 2020 / 07:05 am MT (CNA).- Archbishop Georg Gänswein has denied media reports that Benedict XVI has lost his voice.

The Austrian Catholic news agency Kathpress reported Dec. 4 that Benedict XVI’s personal secretary had confirmed that the 93-year-old pope emeritus was still able to speak clearly.

Reports had circulated in the Italian press and on social media suggesting that the German theologian, who served as pope from 2005 to 2013, was no longer able to speak.

CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, said that Gänswein told Kathpress that Benedict’s voice had, however, become “very weak and thin.”
 

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https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/12/31/archbishop-ganswein-pope-francis-reassign-vatican-239630

Archbishop Gänswein says he was “pained” by Francis’ decision to reassign him
December 31, 2020

Munich (KNA) – Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the German private secretary of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, has spoken of his shock at having been placed on a leave of absence from his work for Pope Francis.

Gänswein had been Prefect of the Papal Household until Francis unexpectedly told him at the end of January that he should devote all his time and energy to Benedict and that his duties as prefect were being redistributed. The decision had “pained” him, Gänswein told the German magazine Bunte.
 
He said he had felt well again since December. After his hospital stay, he also had a “clarifying, very strengthening and encouraging meeting with Pope Francis.”

Gänswein said Benedict XVI remained very alert mentally. “Physically, however, he has become quite weak,” he said. “At 93, he is at a blessed age. Despite all their personal differences, he and his successor share a friendly, even cordial togetherness.”

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/archbishop-ganswein-pope-benedict-xvis-secretary-reflects-on-awful-2020-with-bunte-magazine-76558

Pope Benedict’s secretary reflects on awful 2020 with German Magazine

CNA Staff, Jan 1, 2021 / 01:29 pm MT (CNA).- Archbishop Georg Gänswein has spoken about life with Pope emeritus Benedict XVI and a personally challenging year. "I'm grateful to God that 2020 is finally over," the 64-year-old told the German tabloid magazine “Bunte”, saying Rome had at times turned “eerily quiet” during the coronavirus pandemic.

Gänswein, who hails from the Black Forest region of Germany, is prefect of the Papal Household, but has been on leave from his duties as prefect since February in order to be able to dedicate his time exclusively to the former pope as Benedict XVI's private secretary.
 
Gänswein celebrated Christmas and New Year’s with Pope emeritus Benedict in the monastery building Mater Ecclesiae in the Vatican Gardens, where the men and four Italian nuns reside.

"I pray the Liturgy of the Hours daily with Pope emeritus Benedict and also the Rosary. A considerable amount of my time is reserved for prayer. Every priest, every bishop, even the Pope, prays not only for himself but for the people entrusted to them. Also and especially for those who do not want to or cannot pray", Gänswein told the magazine.

He also said Benedict XVI remained very alert mentally. “Physically, however, he has become quite weak,” he said. “At 93, he is at a blessed age.”

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https://www.ncregister.com/blog/benedict-xvi-warnings

Benedict XVI Warned Us Years Ago of Dangers Ahead

Several times during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI sounded the alarm about the direction society was taking, and told us what we must do in response.
Joseph Pronechen  Blogs January 2, 2021

Like the seers and prophets of old, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI several times warned about the direction society was taking and where it was heading, and what we should do.

“In the Old and New Testaments, the Lord proclaims judgment on the unfaithful vineyard,” Benedict XVI said in his homily to bishops gathered together in October 2005.

“The threat of judgment also concerns us, the Church in Europe, Europe and the West in general. … The Lord is also crying out to our ears… ‘If you do not repent I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.’ Light can also be taken away from us and we do well to let this warning ring out with its full seriousness in our hearts, while crying to the Lord: ‘Help us to repent! Give all of us the grace of true renewal! Do not allow your light in our midst to blow out! Strengthen our faith, our hope and our love, so that we can bear good fruit!’”

Benedict’s reference to Revelation 2:5, where Jesus is speaking to the church in Ephesus, serves an even more stark reminder today. It wasn’t the only time Benedict turned to the Book of Revelation.

During his 2010 Christmas greetings he warned, “The Book of Revelation (18:13) includes among the great sins of Babylon — the symbol of the world’s great irreligious cities — the fact that it trades with bodies and souls and treats them as commodities. In this context, the problem of drugs also rears its head, and with increasing force extends its octopus tentacles around the entire world — an eloquent expression of the tyranny of mammon which perverts mankind. No pleasure is ever enough…”

Benedict warned that this “fatal misunderstanding of freedom… actually undermines man’s freedom and ultimately destroys it.”

Two years later, speaking to the United States bishops on their ad limina visit, he again cautioned about what he saw happening. He told them, “It is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres. The seriousness of these threats needs to be clearly appreciated at every level of ecclesial life. Of particular concern are certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion.”
 
And in the 2010 speech he directed us to hope and to a solution as he quoted Psalm 82:8: “Rise up, O God, judge the earth; for all the nations belong to you!”

Then he ended with this plea: “Thus we say to the Lord: ‘Arise at this moment, take the world in your hands, protect your Church, protect humanity, protect the earth.’ And we once again entrust ourselves to the Mother of God, Mary, and pray: ‘You, the great believer, you who have opened the earth to the heavens, help us, open the doors today as well, that truth may win, the will of God, which is the true good, the true salvation of the world.’ Amen.”

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-emeritus-benedict-xvi-to-receive-coronavirus-vaccine-10328

Benedict XVI to receive coronavirus vaccine

Vatican City, Jan 12, 2021 / 03:30 am MT (CNA).- Pope emeritus Benedict XVI will receive the coronavirus vaccine as soon as it is available, his personal secretary said Tuesday.

Archbishop Georg Gänswein told CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, Jan. 12 that the 93-year-old former pope would be vaccinated “as soon as the vaccine is available.”

“I will also be vaccinated along with the whole household of the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery,” said Gänswein, referring to the Vatican monastery where Benedict XVI has lived since resigning as pope in 2013.
 

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2021-01/pope-francis-benedict-xvi-covid-19-vaccine.html

Pope Francis and the Pope emeritus receive Covid-19 vaccine
14 January 2021, 12:08

Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI receive their first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine in the Vatican.
By Vatican News

The vaccination campaign against Covid-19 in the Vatican which began on Wednesday continues with both Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI receiving their first doses of the vaccine.

“I can confirm that as part of the vaccination program of the Vatican City State, as of today, the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine has been administered to Pope Francis and to the Pope Emeritus,” said Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office in response to journalists’ questions.
 

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2021-01/benedict-xvi-the-pandemic-first-christmas-without-his-brother.html

Benedict XVI, the pandemic, first Christmas without his brother

Archbishop Georg Gänswein shares how the Pope emeritus, who was vaccinated on Thursday morning, is living through these difficult times.
By Vatican News

This was Benedict XVI's first Christmas without his brother Georg, although his presence was somehow felt, says Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the personal secretary of the Pope emeritus. The Archbishop, who also serves as Prefect of the Papal Household, spoke with Vatican News on the day Joseph Ratzinger was vaccinated at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican.

“Benedict XVI’s brother, during these Christmas holidays — the first after his death — has made himself felt in some way: we have, in fact, listened several times to CDs, not only to Bach's Christmas Oratorio, but also to concerts with Christmas carols, performed by the Regensburger Domspatzen, the choir that Georg Ratzinger directed.” Archbishop Gänswein added: “For Benedict, this absence is a wound that has caused him pain during these holidays, but he also told me that he felt the Lord's consolation, in the certainty that his brother now lives in His embrace.”

The Pope emeritus’ personal secretary also spoke of how this time of pandemic is being lived inside the Mater Ecclesiae monastery. “The daily organisation has not changed much. The rhythm of the days has remained the same, even if the number of visits has been greatly reduced. Benedict follows the news that reaches us on television and shares our concern about the pandemic, about what is happening in the world, about the many people who are losing their lives to the virus. There have been people he knows who have died from Covid-19.”
 

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Photos at the link

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/archbishop-gnswein-holy-face-of-manoppello-conveys-incomparable-news-of-christs-resurrection-76530
Archbishop Gänswein: Holy Face of Manoppello conveys ‘incomparable news’ of the resurrection

CNA Staff, Jan 17, 2021 / 09:00 am MT (CNA).- Archbishop Georg Gänswein said on Sunday that the image known as the Holy Face of Manoppello conveys the “incomparable news” of Christ’s resurrection.

The Prefect of the Papal Household made the comment on Jan. 17 as he preached at Mass at the Shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello, a village in the Abruzzo region of southern Italy.

Gänswein recalled that in 2006 Benedict XVI became the first pope in more than 400 years to venerate the image, located in a church that is part of a Capuchin monastery.

“Pope Benedict had not come barefoot like Pope Innocent, but by helicopter from Castel Gandolfo to Manoppello at the invitation of Archbishop Bruno Forte [of Chieti-Vasto],” said Gänswein, Benedict’s personal secretary.

“And I still remember very vividly every moment of that meeting, as well as May 15, 2009, when Benedict XVI visited the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, from which the veil of the Holy Face -- as well as the Shroud of Turin -- originates as incomparable news of the resurrection of Christ from the dead.”

Some devotees of the Holy Face of Manoppello believe it is the “veil of Veronica” used to dry Christ’s face as he carried the cross to his crucifixion. Others say it is the “resurrection cloth,” a “sudarium” that covered Christ’s face in the tomb. Others still consider it inauthentic.
 

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-and-benedict-xvi-receive-second-dose-of-covid-19-vaccine-20561

Pope Francis and Benedict XVI receive second dose of COVID-19 vaccine
By Hannah Brockhaus

Vatican City, Feb 5, 2021 / 06:00 am MT (CNA).- Pope Francis and Pope emeritus Benedict XVI have both received their second and final dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, a Vatican source confirmed to CNA.

Pope Francis and Benedict had received the first dose of the vaccine last month, as confirmed by Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, on Jan. 14.
 

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2021-03/pope-emeritus-benedict-xvi-renunciation.html

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: “There are not two Popes”
01 March 2021, 10:12

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI recalls that his renunciation of the papacy was a “difficult choice” but made “in full conscience,” believing that he did well.
By Vatican News

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s resignation from the papacy, which became effective eight years ago, [28 February 2013] was a “difficult choice,” but made “in full conscience” – one which he has not regretted at all.
 
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-emeritus-benedict-xvi-addresses-resignation-conspiracy-theories-iraq-and-biden-in-new-interview-50478
Benedict XVI addresses resignation conspiracy theories, Iraq, and Biden in new interview

The interview in Italian--
https://www.corriere.it/cronache/21_marzo_01/intervista-ratzinger-non-ci-sono-due-papi-rinuncia-8-anni-fa-credo-aver-fatto-bene-07a0ce58-7a01-11eb-b9cd-5eae78a2031e.shtml
Intervista a Ratzinger: «Non ci sono due Papi. La rinuncia di 8 anni fa? Credo di aver fatto bene»

https://www.ncregister.com/news/pope-benedict-s-conscience-is-clear-regarding-his-2013-resignation
Pope Benedict’s ‘Conscience Is Clear’ Regarding His 2013 Resignation
Edward Pentin  Vatican  March 1, 2021

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https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2021/03/benedict-discuses-resignation-iraq-and-biden-in-new-interview/

Benedict discuses resignation, Iraq and Biden in new interview
Inés San Martín  Mar 1, 2021

ROME – Eight years to the date since he officially left the See of Peter vacant, Pope emeritus Benedict XVI still has to repeat that “there is only one pope,” that his decision to resign was made with full freedom, and it wasn’t due to a gay lobby in the Vatican.

In an interview released Monday, he also refers to Pope Francis’s upcoming trip to Iraq and to U.S. President Joe Biden.
 
According to Corriere, Benedict’s voice is “thin as a breath,” and during some sections of the conversation, almost soundless. His personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein was also present at the interview, and in some rare passages repeats and “translates” while Benedict nods in approval.

“The mind remains clear, quick as the eyes, alert and lively,” writes the journalist who met with the pope emeritus. “The white hair is slightly long, under the papal skullcap as white as his robe. Two very thin wrists emerge from his sleeves, highlighting an image of great physical fragility. Ratzinger wears a watch on his left wrist and on his right a strange contraption that looks like another watch but is actually an alarm ready to go off if something happens to him.”
 

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English translation of the interview at the link

https://www.ncregister.com/interview/cardinal-sarah-the-only-thing-that-counts-is-to-seek-god-ever-more-deeply

Cardinal Sarah: ‘The Only Thing That Counts Is to Seek God Ever More Deeply’
Edward Pentin  Vatican  March 10, 2021

In his first interview since Pope Francis accepted his resignation as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments last month, Cardinal Robert Sarah has revealed how ideological struggles over worship were a source of “great suffering” for him.

In comments to Matteo Matzuzzi of the Italian daily Il Foglio published on Wednesday (see below for an English translation provided exclusively to the Register), Cardinal Sarah says that in the Church today “too often we act as if everything is a question of politics, power, influence and the unjustified imposition of a hermeneutic of Vatican II that totally breaks and is irreversibly at odds with Tradition.”

The solution, he argues, is for the Church to return to placing God at the center of the liturgy, beginning by celebrating Mass ad orientem. “If God is not at the center of the Church’s life, then she is in danger of death,” he says, suggesting that the Church is “currently experiencing a Good Friday,” but adding that “Christ's victory always comes through the Cross.”

Cardinal Sarah stresses that it’s unsound to view such matters as being ideological issues. “I don’t believe that the struggle between progressives and conservatives has any meaning in the Church,” he said, adding, “These categories are political and ideological. The Church is not a field of political struggle.”

He also discusses his positive relationships with Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, his time as prefect, his plans for the future, and how he sees the Church in the coming years.
 

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/benedict-xvi-delighted-that-pope-francis-has-declared-year-of-st-joseph

Benedict XVI ‘delighted’ by Year of St. Joseph proclaimed by Pope Francis

CNA Staff, Mar 31, 2021 / 06:00 am MT (CNA).- Pope emeritus Benedict XVI has paid tribute to the Year of St. Joseph declared by Pope Francis and urged Catholics to read Francis’ apostolic letter Patris corde, describing it as a simple text “coming from the heart and going to the heart, yet containing such profound depth.”

In an interview with the German Catholic weekly newspaper Die Tagespost, the 93-year-old, whose baptismal patron saint is Joseph, also talked about family memories, and impressions from his pilgrimages to the Holy Land.

“I am of course particularly delighted that Pope Francis has drawn the attention of the faithful to St. Joseph,” Benedict XVI said in the interview which will be published in full April 1.

“I have therefore read with particular gratitude and heartfelt approval the apostolic letter Patris corde, which the Holy Father issued on the occasion of the elevation of St. Joseph to patron saint of the entire Church 150 years ago.”

“I think that this text should be read and considered again and again by the faithful and thus contribute to a purification and deepening of our veneration of the saints in general and of St. Joseph in particular.”
 

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/247231/documentary-says-benedict-xvis-secretary-tried-to-convince-him-not-to-resign

Documentary says Benedict XVI’s secretary tried to convince him not to resign
By Diego Lopez Marina

Vatican City, Apr 9, 2021 / 15:29 pm

A documentary being released on Benedict XVI’s 94th birthday state that his personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, tried to dissuade him from abdicating the papacy.

“Benedict XVI, the Pope Emeritus”, directed by Andrés Garrigó, will be released April 16 by Goya Productions.

The film will focus on Benedict’s papacy, and his time as prefect of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

“At that time he had to deal with such crises as Liberation Theology in its Marxist version with its affinity to guerrilla warfare, and the cases of pedophilia that were beginning to surface then. Elected in 2005, Benedict is faced with two immense tasks:  defending Catholic doctrine from the 'dictatorship of relativism' on the outside and reforming the Church from within, starting with the confusing structure of Vatican finances,” the filmmaker stated.
 

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https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2021/04/benedict-xvis-private-secretary-says-its-inappropriate-to-rank-popes/

Benedict XVI’s private secretary says it’s ‘inappropriate’ to rank popes
Inés San Martín  Apr 11, 2021

ROME – According to German Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the personal secretary of Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, it’s not appropriate to make a “papal ranking,” and acknowledged that the former pope has been misinterpreted not only by foes, but also by friends.

“Everyone knows that the figure and work of Benedict XVI have encountered resistance, opposition and rejection in certain environments,” Gänswein said. “And not so much because of the way he communicates, but rather because of the specific contents of his teaching.”

“This is an unpleasant experience for all those who follow a clear and unclouded line in proclaiming and defending the Catholic faith,” he continued, differentiating these critics from those who bought the “stereotypes and clichés” about the former pope, who served as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) during most of St. John Paul II pontificate.
 

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Happy 94th birthday!   

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/247303/benedict-xvi-turns-94-years-old

Benedict XVI turns 94 years old
By Hannah Brockhaus

Vatican City, Apr 16, 2021 / 10:13 am America/Denver (CNA).

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was born 94 years ago today in the town of Marktl, Bavaria. More than eight years after he announced his retirement from the papacy in 2013, Benedict continues to live a retired life in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery on Vatican grounds.

Despite growing feebleness, the retired pope is in good health, and has marked his April 16 birthday each year, sometimes in the presence of family and friends.

This is Benedict’s first birthday since the death of his older brother Georg Ratzinger on July 1, 2020 in Bavaria.
 
https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/pope-benedict-xvi-the-anchor-that-kept-germany-rooted-in-christ
Pope Benedict XVI, the Anchor That Kept Germany Rooted in Christ

COMMENTARY: In the late evening of his life, Ratzinger/Benedict can be understood as the Catholic Church’s singular, multi-generational response to the reforming agenda of German theology.
Father Raymond J. de Souza  Commentaries April 15, 2021

Did the Church place too many of her theological eggs in one Bavarian Easter basket?

The question occurs as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI — born on Holy Saturday and baptized the same day in the newly-blessed Easter water — celebrates his 94th birthday tomorrow, April 16.

With the death of Father Hans Küng, 93, during the Easter Octave, the generation to which Joseph Ratzinger belongs is passing away. Ratzinger, the Bavarian, and the Swiss Küng were 30-something theological wunderkinds, both part of what Ratzinger called the “Rhine alliance” of northern European theologians who would definitively shape the work of the Second Vatican Council.

The Rhine Flows Into the Tiber was the title of one of the more famous books on Vatican II, and Cardinal Ratzinger flowed farther than anyone, becoming, as it were, the Tiber itself upon his election as supreme pontiff in 2005.

The current theological chaos in Germany, where the “binding synodal path” raises the possibility of schism, invites renewed attention to German theology, one of the most influential forces in ecclesial life in the past century. For 60 years, from his ordination in 1951 to his abdication in 2013, Joseph Ratzinger was at the center of it. Indeed, he became something of an anchor in stormy seas. After his abdication, the boat began to drift.

In the late evening of his life, Ratzinger/Benedict can be understood as the Church’s singular, multi-generational response to the reforming agenda of German theology. Would that reform be Catholic, returning to the great and wide tradition, or Protestant, diverging from it?
 

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https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2021/04/benedict-xvis-personal-secretary-defends-the-former-pontiffs-inner-circle/

Benedict XVI’s personal secretary defends the former pontiff’s inner circle
Inés San Martín  Apr 19, 2021

ROME— Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the personal secretary of the Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, has denied that the communications that come from the former pontiff’s household are somehow damaging to the Church.

“To judge the communications or interventions coming from the Mater Ecclesiae monastery as ‘inappropriate’ seems a generic and superficial criticism, fruit of a superficial reading or, even, myopic and deceitful,” he said in his latest interview.

The archbishop was answering a question posed to him that used the word “inappropriate” to refer to some communications and interventions coming from the monastery within Vatican grounds where the pope emeritus has lived since his resignation in 2013.

He’s recently given several written interviews to a handful of Spanish-speaking outlets to promote the Spanish edition of his book How the Catholic Church Can Restore Our Culture, published in 2020.
 

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/247725/benedict-xvi-to-minor-seminary-what-has-withered-in-germany-still-blossoms-in-poland

Benedict XVI to minor seminary: What has withered in Germany still blossoms in Poland
CNA Staff, May 20, 2021 / 13:00 pm America/Denver (CNA).

Pope emeritus Benedict XVI has written to a minor seminary in Poland, saying that he is delighted to see “how in Poland still blossoms what in Germany has withered.”

The retired German pope sent the letter, dated May 7, to the Minor Seminary of the Archdiocese of Częstochowa, located in the southern Polish city that is home to the venerated icon of the Black Madonna.

The 94-year-old pope emeritus wrote: “The letter from your seminary, signed by the two prefects and the dean, brought great joy to my house. It is wonderful to see how in Poland still blossoms what in Germany has withered.”

He continued: “I particularly liked the illustration which shows my brother and me talking about the seminary and the invitation to me to visit the Minor Seminary of the Archdiocese of Częstochowa.”

“Even if, given my age and state of health, it is no longer possible for me to visit you in person, I am your guest with my heart.”

The illustration, shown on the minor seminary’s website, features a photograph of Benedict XVI as pope, walking beside his late older brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger.

In a speech balloon, Benedict reminisces about the brothers’ time at a minor seminary in Bavaria, southern Germany. Msgr. Ratzinger, in reply, wonders if there are any such places these days.

At the foot of the illustration, it says: “In fact, there are! Come and see. The Minor Seminary of the Archdiocese of Częstochowa invites you.”

The minor seminary, for high school-age students, dates back to 1951.