{"id":594,"date":"2014-02-25T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2014-02-25T11:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/?p=594"},"modified":"2014-03-12T12:19:55","modified_gmt":"2014-03-12T11:19:55","slug":"retired-pope-benedict-watches-his-successor-soar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/?p=594","title":{"rendered":"Retired Pope Benedict watches his successor soar"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Anthony Faiola \/\u00a0<\/strong>Stefano Pitrelli contributed to this report<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/h1>\n
VATICAN CITY \u2014 Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is not \u201cjealous\u201d of his successor\u2019s worldwide celebrity, holds him in \u201chigh esteem\u201d
\nand is developing an ever closer relationship with Pope Francis through \u201cregular\u201d communications, according to the former pontiff\u2019s private secretary and prefect of the papal household, Archbishop Georg G\u00e4nswein.<\/article>\n
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In a rare interview with a U.S. media outlet, G\u00e4nswein, a Benedict confidant who resides with the retired pope in a remodeled Vatican City convent, suggested that despite their obvious differences, the former pope was not seeking to influence the new pontiff on major church decisions. In addition, G\u00e4nswein said, Benedict\u2019s surprise appearance at
\na swearing-in ceremony for 19
\nnew cardinals this past weekend should not be taken as a sign of his reemergence into public life.<\/article>\n

Instead, G\u00e4nswein said, Benedict was there at the invitation of Francis and was not expected to make a habit of attending major Vatican events.<\/p>\n

\u201cPope Benedict pondered a lot and then accepted,\u201d G\u00e4nswein said. \u201cBut this does not in any way signify that he is, so to speak, getting back in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

G\u00e4nswein \u2014 the 57-year-old German cleric known across Italy as \u201cGorgeous George\u201d for his movie-\u00adstar looks, which once landed him on the cover ofVanity Fair\u2019s Italian edition<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 is in a unique position inside the rarefied world of Vatican City. Not only does he remain Benedict\u2019s private secretary but he is also superintendent of Francis\u2019s papal household, thus enjoying extraordinary access to both the former and current pontiffs.<\/p>\n

A growing bond<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking under the frescoed ceiling of the 16th-century Apostolic Palace just beyond St. Peter\u2019s Square, G\u00e4nswein described the two popes as obviously different. Indeed, before he became the first pontiff to\u00a0retire\u00a0<\/a>since Gregory XII in 1415, Benedict, 86, was seen by many Vatican watchers as a ponderous and conservative theologian.<\/p>\n

Francis, meanwhile, has been embraced by progressives as an everyman pontiff, making headlines with everything from his comments on not \u201cjudging\u201d homosexuals to his recent decision to personally baptize the child of a couple who were married in a civil ceremony outside the church. At the same time, he has moved to enact broad reforms inside the scandal-plagued\u00a0Vatican Bank<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPope Francis\u2019s style is quite different, though that doesn\u2019t mean that the content is better,\u201d G\u00e4nswein said. \u201cBut his style created much interest among the faithful and also outside of the church.\u201d<\/p>\n

G\u00e4nswein said he had not directly spoken to Benedict about the nature of his private communications with his successor, which the archbishop said occurred regularly through letters, telephone calls and face-to-face meetings. But he suggested that the retired pontiff had not tried to intervene on issues of governance, such as the recent elevation of the new cardinals, including several seen as progressive reformers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Pope Francis asked for his advice about the new cardinals, I don\u2019t know, but I don\u2019t think so,\u201d G\u00e4nswein said. \u201cGovernance is one thing, communication another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the two men, G\u00e4nswein suggested, were apparently becoming friends: Benedict\u2019s \u201cesteem [for Pope Francis] is very high. And it has grown because of the courage of the new pope, week after week. At the beginning, they did not know each other very well. But then Pope Francis phoned him, wrote him, visited him, phoned him again and invited him [to private meetings], so that their contact became very personal and confidential.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retirement and after<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although Benedict was often pilloried by the press, G\u00e4nswein said the retired pope was not bitter about the transformation of Francis over the past year from a little-known Argentine cardinal to a global media darling. \u201cThe Pope Emeritus Benedict is well aware of the fame of his successor, but he\u2019s not jealous because he sees that celebrity as helping the faithful,\u201d G\u00e4nswein said.<\/p>\n

G\u00e4nswein said Benedict had told him about his intention to retire well before the officialannouncement last February \u2014 an act that G\u00e4nswein said he tried unsuccessfully to counsel against.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, my first instinctive reaction was to tell him, \u2018No, Holy Father, it\u2019s not possible that you should renounce,\u2019\u2009\u201d G\u00e4nswein said. \u201cThen I understood that such a decision had already been taken by Pope Benedict.\u201d<\/p>\n

G\u00e4nswein insisted that Benedict\u2019s decision was related purely to frailness and age, not to the \u201cVatileaks\u201d scandal in which private documents leaked to the Italian news media exposed alleged Vatican corruption and the travails of high-level gay clerics.<\/p>\n

These days, G\u00e4nswein, who wore fashionable leather sneakers below his solid black cassock, said Benedict\u2019s life has become a routine, perhaps not surprising for an aged former pontiff.<\/p>\n

Each morning, he said, G\u00e4nswein and Benedict celebrate Mass together in the chapel of the former convent where they live. After breakfast, Benedict dedicates time to praying, reading, writing letters and, occasionally, accepting personal visits. He has lunch at 1:30\u00a0p.m., after which he and G\u00e4nswein take a short walk.<\/p>\n

After his afternoon siesta, Benedict prays the rosary alongside G\u00e4nswein, before the two go for another walk in a small concealed grove behind St. Peter\u2019s. At 7:30\u00a0p.m., the two men typically dine together, before Benedict ends his day with the evening news and, perhaps, a stretch on his balcony before bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pope emeritus is not writing books any longer. He hasn\u2019t got the strength, otherwise he wouldn\u2019t have left his papacy,\u201d G\u00e4nswein said. \u201c \u2018It takes strength to write,\u2019 he says.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether Benedict was reflecting on his tumultuous tenure as pope \u2014 and whether he viewed his papacy as a success \u2014 G\u00e4nswein said Benedict\u2019s eight years as pope \u201cwere not easy years, for many reasons. The pope emeritus has pondered much about this. The measure of his own success is not the way the media wrote about him, whether they appreciated him or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuccess is not the right angle from which to judge a papacy,\u201d G\u00e4nswein added. \u201cHe planted lots of seeds, and you can\u2019t immediately see the seed, but only after nature\u2019s done her work you can see what grows from them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Anthony Faiola \/\u00a0Stefano Pitrelli contributed to this report VATICAN CITY \u2014 Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is not \u201cjealous\u201d of his successor\u2019s worldwide celebrity, holds him in \u201chigh esteem\u201d and is developing an ever closer relationship with Pope Francis through \u201cregular\u201d communications, according to the former pontiff\u2019s private secretary and prefect of the papal household, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[48],"class_list":["post-594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-washpost","tag-vaticano"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=594"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":722,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions\/722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}