Archbishop
Ganswein, the Secretary of both, Pope Francis and Pope Benedict, has given an
extraordinary and dare I say it, puzzling interview to Edward Pentin.
What does this enlarged ministry mean? Please see Edward Pentin's article below:-
Prefect of Pontifical Household also recalls
"dramatic struggle" of 2005 Conclave.
by Edward
Pentin 23/05/2016
Archbishop
Gänswein delivering his speech at the Pontifical Gregorian University, May 20.
"In
a speech reflecting on Pope Benedict XVI’s pontificate, Archbishop Georg
Gänswein has confirmed the existence of a group who fought against Benedict’s
election in 2005, but stressed that "Vatileaks" or other issues had
"little or nothing" to do with his resignation in 2013.
Speaking
at the presentation of a new book on Benedict’s pontificate at the Pontifical
Gregorian University in Rome May 20, Archbishop Gänswein also said that Pope
Francis and Benedict are not two popes “in competition” with one another, but
represent one “expanded” Petrine Office with “an active member” and a
“contemplative.”
Archbishop
Gänswein, who doubles as the personal secretary of the Pope Emeritus and
prefect of the Pontifical Household, said Benedict did not abandon the papacy
like Pope Celestine V in the 13th century but rather sought to continue his
Petrine Office in a more appropriate way given his frailty.
“Therefore,
from 11 February 2013, the papal ministry is not the same as before,” he said.
“It is and remains the foundation of the Catholic Church; and yet it is a
foundation that Benedict XVI has profoundly and lastingly transformed by his
exceptional pontificate.”
Reflecting
on Benedict's time as Pope, Archbishop Gänswein said that although he was
“a classic ‘homo historicus’, a Western man par excellence who embodied the
richness of the Catholic tradition like no other,” at the same time he was “so
bold as to open the door to a new phase, for that historic turning point that
five years ago no one could have imagined.”
Gänswein
drew attention to “brilliant and illuminating” and “well documented and
thorough” passages of the book, written by Roberto Regoli and entitled Oltre
la crisi della Chiesa. Il pontificato di Benedetto XVI — “Beyond the Crisis
of the Church, The Pontificate of Benedict XVI.”
The
German prelate especially highlighted Regoli’s account of “a dramatic struggle”
that took place in the 2005 Conclave between the “so-called ‘Salt of the Earth
Party’” (named after the book interview with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger)
comprising “Cardinals Lopez Trujillo, Ruini, Herranz, Ruoco Varela or
Medina" and their adversaries: "the so-called St. Gallen group” that
included “Cardinals Danneels, Martini, Silvestrini or Murphy O’Connor” — a
group Cardinal Danneels referred jokingly to as “a kind of mafia-club,” Archbishop Gänswein
recalled. (His reference to that struggle backs up an interview German journalist
Paul Badde gave the Register last November and EWTN Germany, during which Badde also
mentioned German Cardinals Kasper and Lehmann as being part of the St.
Gallen group) (THIS IS BIG NEWS, why would Archbishop
Ganswein report this?).
“The
election was certainly the outcome of a battle,” Gänswein went on, adding that
the “key” to the Conclave was Cardinal Ratzinger’s “dictatorship of relativism”
homily that he gave on the first day of the election when he was Dean of the
College of Cardinals.
Benedict’s
personal secretary then referred to how Regoli highlights the “fascinating and
moving” years of Benedict’s pontificate, and his “skill and confidence” in
exercising the Petrine ministry. He recalled, in particular, the “black year”
of 2010, when Manuela Camagni, one of the four Memores Domini consecrated women
who assisted Benedict, was tragically killed in a road accident in Rome.
The year,
which he attests was a dark one, was further blackened by “malicious attacks
against the Pope” ....But nothing affected Benedict’s “heart as much as the
death of Manuela”, whom he considered part of the “papal family” of helpers.
“Benedict wasn’t an ‘actor pope’, and even less an insensitive ‘automaton
Pope’,” Gänswein said. ”Even on the throne of Peter, he was and remained a man…
‘a man with his contradictions’.”
Then,
after having been so affected by the death of Camagni, Benedict suffered the
“betrayal of Paolo Gabriele”, his “poor and misguided” former valet who was
found guilty of leaking confidential papal documents in what became known as
the ‘Vatileaks’ scandal. That episode was “false money” traded on the world
stage as “authentic gold bullion” he said, but stressed that “no traitor,
‘mole’, or any journalist” would have caused Benedict to resign. “The scandal
was too small” for the “greater, well considered step Benedict made of
millennial historical significance.”
Such
assumptions that they did have something to do with it, he said, “have little
or nothing to do with reality”, adding that Benedict resigned because it was
“fitting” and “reasonable”, and quoted John Duns Scotus’ words to justify the
decree for the Immaculate Conception: “Decuit, potuit, fecit” — “He could do
it, it was fitting that He do it.”
Various
reports have suggested that pressure was exerted on Benedict to step down. One
of the latest came last year from a former confidant and confessor to the late
Cardinal Carlo Martini who said Martini had told Benedict: "Try and reform the Curia, and if not, you leave.”
But in
his speech, Gänswein insisted "it was fitting" for Benedict to
resign because he "was aware that the necessary strength for such a
very heavy office was lessening. He could do it [resign], because he had long
thought through, from a theological point of view, the possibility of a pope
emeritus in the future. So he did it.”
Drawing
on the Latin words “munus petrinum” — “Petrine ministry” — Gänswein pointed out
the word “munus” has many meanings such as “service, duty, guide or gift”. He
said that “before and after his resignation” Benedict has viewed his task as
“participation in such a ‘Petrine ministry’. “He left the Papal Throne and yet,
with the step he took on 11 February 2013, he has not abandoned this ministry,”
Gänswein explained, something "quite impossible after his irrevocable
acceptance of the office in April 2005.“
Instead,
he said, "he has built a personal office with a collegial and synodal
dimension, almost a communal ministry, as if he had wanted to reiterate once
again the invitation contained in the motto that the then-Joseph Ratzinger had
as Archbishop of Munich and Freising and naturally maintained as Bishop of
Rome: "cooperatores veritatis", which means ‘co-workers of the
truth’.”
Archbishop
Gänswein pointed out that the motto is not in the singular but in the plural (really??), and taken from the Third Letter of John,
in which it is written in verse 8: "We must welcome these people to become
co-workers for the truth".
He
therefore stressed that since Francis’ election, there are not “two popes,
but de facto an expanded ministry — with an active member and a
contemplative member.” He added that this is why Benedict XVI “has not given up
his name”, unlike Pope Celestine V who reverted to his name Pietro da
Marrone, “nor the white cassock.” “Therefore he has also not retired to a
monastery in isolation but stays within the Vatican — as if he had taken only
one step to the side to make room for his successor and a new stage in the
history of the papacy.” With that step, he said, he has enriched the papacy
with “his prayer and his compassion placed in the Vatican Gardens.”
Archbishop
Gänswein repeated that Benedict’s resignation was “quite different” to
that of Pope Celestine V. “So it is not surprising,” he said, “that some have seen it as
revolutionary, or otherwise as entirely consistent with the gospel, while
still others see in this way a secularized papacy as never before, and thus
more collegial and functional, or even simply more humane and less sacred. And
still others are of the opinion that Benedict XVI, with this step, has almost —
speaking in theological and historical-critical terms — demythologized the
papacy.”
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