Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the personal secretary of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, says he tried to persuade Benedict to stay on and continue his work as Pope.
Asked in an interview in the German illustrated weekly Bunte whether then Pope Benedict had talked to him about his intention to resign, Archbishop Gänswein said he had known about the Pope’s intention for “quite some time beforehand” and had tried to change his mind, but failed. “Pope Benedict … was not to be shaken,” he said.
The VatiLeaks affair, in which private documents were leaked to the press, had nothing to do with Benedict’s decision, Archbishop Gänswein insisted. He had come to the conclusion that he lacked the necessary strength to go on leading the Church in such turbulent times and that “a new, strong helmsman was required to take control of the situation”.
Asked how close the relationship between Pope Francis and his predecessor was, Archbishop Gänswein replied, “It is clear that in certain matters of style and taste they are pretty different, but that is not the case as far as the substance and the content of the faith are concerned. There’s full continuity there.”
The biggest difference was the way they approached people, Gänswein said. Pope Francis loved to embrace everyone while Pope Benedict was more reticent, loved peace and quiet and tended to withdraw from crowds.
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