The longtime secretary to Pope Benedict XVI has acknowledged that his tell-all memoir has been criticized for casting Pope Francis in an unfavorable mild
ROME — The longtime secretary to Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged Sunday that his tell-all memoir, printed within the days after Benedict’s demise, had been criticized for casting Pope Francis in an unfavorable mild, however insisted that a number of the polemics had been extra about anti-Benedict prejudice than the rest.
In a few of his first public feedback since Benedict’s Dec. 31 demise, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein mentioned he remained loyal to Francis and that he was nonetheless ready for the pontiff to provide him a brand new job.
Gaenswein’s future has been the topic of a lot hypothesis following Benedict’s demise and the publication of “Nothing However the Fact: My Life Beside Pope Benedict XVI.” Within the memoir, Gaenswein charted his practically 30 years working with Benedict, but in addition settled outdated scores, revealed palace intrigues and detailed a number of the dangerous blood that accrued throughout the decade during which Benedict lived as a retired pope alongside Francis.
Printed throughout the emotional interval round Benedict’s Jan. 5 funeral, the e book got here to encapsulate the conservative criticism that has been directed at Francis and his extra progressive bent by individuals nostalgic for Benedict’s doctrinaire papacy.
Chatting with Sky TG24 Sunday after celebrating Mass at a Rome-area church, Gaenswein acknowledged his e book had raised eyebrows each for its content material and the timing of its publication.
“There are and can be criticisms,” he mentioned. “And I’ve to reside with the criticisms.”
He mentioned that he welcomed well-founded criticism.
“If the criticisms aren’t well-founded, however are criticisms from (anti-Benedict) prejudice or different unfounded motives, I’ve to just accept them, however I can’t take them severely. True criticism I settle for and I study from,” he mentioned.
He spoke to Sky at Santa Maria Consolatrice, which was the titular church of Benedict when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. After the Mass, a plaque honoring the late pope was unveiled.
In an interview with The Related Press on Jan. 24, Francis responded to Gaenswein’s critiques, and people of different conservatives, by saying they had been pure after 10 years and proved that the prelates felt free to talk.