Francis guarantees that Benedict XVI never meddled in the management of the Church

“Benedict XVI was a man of great delicacy. In some cases, some people took advantage of him, perhaps without malice, and restricted his movements. Unfortunately, in a way, they were surrounding him. He was a very delicate man, but he wasn’t weak, he was strong,” says Francisco, in ‘El Sucesor’ (The Successor), a book-interview by journalist Javier Martínez-Brocal that will be released in Spain this Wednesday.

According to extracts from the book revealed by the Vatican news portal, and reported this Tuesday by Agencia Ecclesia, the Pope reveals details of his almost ten-year relationship, in the Vatican, with the Pope Emeritus.

“If I didn’t see something right, I thought about it three or four times before telling me. He let me grow and gave me the freedom to make decisions”, reveals Francisco, stressing: “He gave me freedom, he never interfered. On one occasion, when there was a decision that he didn’t understand, he asked me for an explanation in a very natural way. He said to me: ‘Look, I don’t understand this, but the decision is in your hands’. I explained the reasons and he was happy.”

The Pope recalled the last hours with his predecessor, on December 28, 2022, when he last saw him alive.

“Benedict (XVI) was lying in bed. He was still conscious, but he couldn’t speak. He looked at me, shook my hand, understood what I was saying, but he couldn’t utter a word. I stayed like that with him for a while, looking at him and holding his hand. I vividly remember his clear eyes… I said a few words to him with affection and blessed him. So we say goodbye.”

Benedict XVI passed away on December 31, 2022, at the age of 95.

Asked about continuity between pontificates, Francis said, in the case of the last Popes, “each successor was always marked by continuity, continuity and difference”, because “each one brought his own personal charisma”.

“There is always continuity and no rupture”, he insisted.

Francis reports that some cardinals went to Benedict XVI with accusations that he was “promoting homosexual marriage”.

“He listened to them all, one by one, calmed them down and explained everything to them. It was once that I said that, since marriage is a sacrament, it cannot be administered to homosexual couples, but that, in some way, it was necessary to provide some guarantee or civil protection to the situation of these people,” she recalled.

Francis confesses that he is “hurt” because he understands that his predecessor was “used” to try to target him and adds that he ordered a review of the papal funeral, explaining that Benedict XVI’s wake was the last with the Pope’s body outside the coffin, for considering that pontiffs “must be veiled and buried like any other son of the Church, with dignity”.

Pope reveals “unholy” maneuvers in the election of Benedict XVI

Francisco, as the conversation unfolds, reveals details of the behind-the-scenes games that led to the election of Pope Benedict XVI, successor to John Paul II, in 2005. Revelations that demonstrate how even in conclaves, where there is belief in the interference of the Holy Spirit in the conduct of work, the most preponderant influence groups try to manipulate the results.

In this case, according to Francisco, these are very common, historically proven maneuvers in conclaves. Joseph Ratzinger began by standing out in the preferences of the cardinal electors, but he would always need two-thirds of the votes to reach Pedro’s seat. Then, a group of Latin American cardinals, not very pleased with the possible election of a European, even Germanic, began to point out the name of Cardinal Bergoglio, then bishop of Buenos Aires, shifting the votes that would condition the two necessary thirds for Ratzinger. Francis says he received 40 of the 115 votes among cardinal electors in the Sistine Chapel – “enough to prevent the candidacy of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, because if they had continued to vote for me, he would not have been able to reach the two-thirds necessary to be elected.” pope”, he points out.

Cardinal Bergoglio would have realized that it was a “complete maneuver”. After Ratzinger withdrew from the race, the influential group would present another cardinal as the main candidate, competing with the Argentine, putting pressure on this new name to stand out and be elected. Upon realizing this maneuver, Bergoglio told Colombian Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos “not to joke” with his candidacy, warning that he would not accept being pope if they elected him. “And from then on, Benedict XVI was elected”, recalls Francisco.

It is unknown what the objective of this revelation was: to relativize Ratzinger’s weight in the consistory at the time, or to increase his own influence, saying that already in 2005 he was a direct competitor, with the possibility of election, to the one who today is considered the most revolutionary of the last five centuries for his courage in resigning his position.

What is certain is that never before had a pope spoken about maneuvers within a conclave. The journalists who followed the event, including the author of these lines, began to understand what was happening in the Sistine Chapel, but without ever writing it down due to the impossibility of confirmation. In the case of Portuguese journalists, at the time, they were betting everything on the election of the then cardinal-patriarch of Lisbon, D. José Policarpo, who from time to time would slip away from the conclave’s work to smoke a cigarette, addicted as he was, just like the his predecessor, D. António Ribeiro, who rushed hearings to maintain nicotine levels. Portuguese journalists, in 2005, when they saw smoke coming out of the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, joked about the situation, betting that it was D. José Policarpo “having a few raisins”.

Clarifying that, although cardinals swear not to reveal what happens in a conclave, “the popes are authorized to tell”, the current Pope also reveals that the group of cardinals responsible for launching his name later told him that they did not want to a “foreign” pope. Remember that the previous pontiff had been John Paul II, elected in 1978, the first non-Italian pope since 1523. The term “foreigner”, among cardinals, was generally used when referring to “non-Italian” pope candidates. .

Francisco confesses to having left the 2005 conclave satisfied. “Cardinal Ratzinger was my candidate”, he admits in the interview with Martínez-Brocal. “If they had elected someone like me, who makes a big mess, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything,” he considers. And the proof is that not even Benedict XVI had an easy life. “He was a man who followed the new style and it wasn’t easy for him. He encountered a lot of resistance within the Vatican,” he states.

Then, asked what he thinks the Holy Spirit wanted to say to the Catholic Church through the election of Pope Benedict XVI, Francis ventures an interpretation: “Here I am in charge. There is no room for maneuver.”

The new book, which will be launched this Wednesday in Spain, is the result of a long interview by the Pope with the Spanish journalist Javier Martínez-Brocal, from ABC, entitled “The Successor”, has a preface signed by the Pope himself and not There is also a date announced for publication in Portugal.