The personal secretary of Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, who died this Saturday, Georg Gänswein, will publish a book in January with his memoirs at the service of the German pontiff and to confront the “slander” against Ratzinger.
The book, titled “Nient’altro che la veritá. La mia vita al fianco di Benedetto XVI” (in Portuguese, “Nothing but the truth. My life with Benedict XVI”, will be published by Piemme de Mondadori publishing house in early January 2023, according to a statement.
“These pages contain a personal testimony of the greatness and serenity of a man, a great scholar, a cardinal and a Pope who made the history of our time,” said Joseph Ratzinger’s personal secretary.
According to him, this work will also be a story told in the first person, which aims to “illuminate some misunderstood aspects of his pontificate and describe the true ‘Vatican world’ from within.”
Georg Gänswein was appointed personal secretary to Benedict XVI in 2003, when he was a young German priest and Ratzinger was not yet pope.
Benedict XVI’s personal secretary stresses that the book seeks to show “the truth about the miserable slander and dark maneuvers that tried, in vain, to overshadow the magisterium and the actions of the German pontiff.”
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died today at the age of 95, shook the Church by resigning his pontificate for health reasons on February 11, 2013, two months after completing eight years in office.
Joseph Ratzinger was born in 1927 in Marktl am Inn, in the German diocese of Passau, and was Pope from 2005 to 2013.
Ratzinger became the first German to head the Catholic Church in many centuries and a representative of the Church’s most dogmatic lineage.
The sexual abuse of minors by priests and the “Vatileaks”, in which case confidential documents of the Pope were revealed, were cases that shook his pontificate.
Benedict XVI ordered an inspection of the dioceses involved, called the abuses a “heinous crime” and apologized to the victims.
During his trip to Portugal in May 2010, Benedict XVI stated that “forgiveness is not a substitute for justice.”
Source: TSF
