The Pope Emeritus has said in an interview that resignation became a “duty” once he realised he was too unwell to cope with travelling to Brazil for World Youth Day 2013.
“With the programme set out by John Paul II for these [World Youth] days, the physical presence of the pope was indispensible,” he told Italian journalist Elio Guerriero. “This, too, was a circumstance which made my resignation a duty.”
After a consultation with his doctor, the Pope Emeritus said, it became clear “that I would never be able to take part in the World Youth Day in Rio de Janiero. From that day, I had to decide in a relatively short time the date of my retirement.”
Pope Benedict XVI resigned in February 2013, five months before the Rio gathering in July. At the time, he said in a statement that “in order to govern the barque of St Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me.”
His remarks to Sig Guerriero, published in Italian newspaper ‘La Repubblica’ on Wednesday, provide more detail into the process behind the decision. The interview forms part of Sig Guerriero’s upcoming biography of the Pope Emeritus, ‘Servant of God and Humanity: The Biography of Benedict XVI’, due to be published in Italy next Tuesday.
In the interview, Pope Benedict said that during his visit to Mexico and Cuba in March 2012, he “experienced very strongly the limits of my physical endurance”, and afterwards felt “incapable of fulfilling” the demands of another international trip. He said he particularly struggled with the change in time zones.
The Pope Emeritus also spoke of his relationship with Pope Francis, which he describes as “wonderfully paternal-fraternal”. He said he had been profoundly touched by Pope Francis’ “extraordinarily human availability”.
Pope Francis “never fails to visit me before embarking on a long trip,” Pope Benedict told Sig Guerriero. “I often receive small gifts, personally written letters [from him]”, he said. “The human kindness with which he treats me is a particular grace of this last phase of my life for which I can only be grateful. What he says about being open toward other men and women is not just words. He puts it into practice with me.”
Pope Francis reciprocates these sentiments in the book’s preface. “In all my meetings with him,” he writes, “I have been able to experience not only reverence and obedience, but also friendly spiritual closeness, the joy of praying together, sincere brotherhood, understanding and friendship, and also his availability for advice.”
Another authorised, interview-based biography of the Pope Emeritus is due to be published in Germany in September, as Letzte Gesprache, or ‘Last Conversations’. This book, based on interviews with Peter Seewald will be published in English in November, as ‘Last Testament’.
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