Cardinal Christoph Schönborn has sharply criticised Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the late Pope Benedict XVI’s personal secretary, for publishing confidential material about the Pope Emeritus.
“I don’t think it’s right to publish such confidential things especially not on the part of someone who was his private secretary,” Schönborn said in a Kathpress interview on 18 January.
In his book Nient’altro che la verita (Nothing but the Truth) published only in Italian to date, Gänswein had revealed details which he (Schönborn) had deliberately kept silent about, said the Austrian cardinal.
These included the fact that he was the author of a letter written to Joseph Ratzinger before the April 2005 conclave at which he was elected Pope.
In his book, Gänswein recalls how a few days after he was elected Pope, Benedict had described his feelings during the conclave with surprising emotion to a group of German pilgrims.
“When I realised from the way the voting was proceeding that the blade of the guillotine was so to speak about to fall on my neck, I felt quite faint … and with deep conviction prayed to the Lord ‘Don’t do this to me, I beg you! You have younger and better candidates who can tackle this enormous task with far greater vigour and strength.’
“At that moment I was most touched by a little note from a colleague from the College of Cardinals.”
The note had reminded him of his own words at the homily he had held at the Funeral Mass for Pope St John Paul II.
In this homily he had recalled Our Lord’s words to Peter at Lake Gennezareth, “Follow me!” and had told the pilgrims how again and again Karol Woytila had received this call from the Lord and had always obeyed it.
Speaking to the pilgrims, Benedict explained: “‘If the Lord should tell you to follow him, remember what you said in your homily. Don’t refuse! Be obedient as Pope St John Paul II was’, my brother cardinal wrote in his note.
“That deeply moved me. The ways of the Lord are not easy but we were not created for an easy life but for great things and for goodness.”
In the Kathpress interview, Schönborn confirmed that what Gänswein had described was correct and that he was the author of the note. He had deliberately never mentioned this.
He also admitted that he and the Pope Emeritus had addressed each other as “Du” in German, which Gänswein especially mentions in his book.
Particularly among the older generation, addressing one another as “Du” – that is using the second person singular of the verb, is far more intimate than just using Christian names in English and reserved for very close friends or members of the family.
As Cardinal Ratzinger and then as Pope Benedict, the late pontiff only called very few people “Du” in his life.
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