Benedict XVI has said that, although he does not see himself “as a failure”, governance was not his “forte” as pope.
In a book-length interview with the author Peter Seewald, Benedict said that when he resigned he had the “peace of someone who had overcome difficulty” and “could tranquilly pass the helm to the one who came next”.
The new book, Last Testament, will be released in English by Bloomsbury in November. The German and Italian editions were released last Saturday with excerpts published in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
Benedict XVI said once again that he was not pressured by anyone to resign, nor was his decision provoked by any particular event or a wish to run away from any problem.
“My weak point perhaps is a lack of resolve in governing and making decisions,” he said. “Here, in reality, I am more a professor, one who reflects and meditates on spiritual questions. Practical governance was not my forte and this certainly was a weakness.”
Pope Francis, on the other hand, “is a man of practical reform”, the retired pope said. His personality and experience as a Jesuit provincial and archbishop have enabled him to take practical organisational steps.
The retired pope, who is 89, said he had no inkling that then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio would be elected his successor: “No one expected him.”
“When I first heard his name, I was unsure,” he said. “But when I saw how he spoke with God and with people, I truly was content. And happy.”
Benedict XVI said it made no impression on him that the new Pope chose to appear on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica without wearing the ermine-lined red mozzetta or cape. “What did touch me, though, was that even before going out on to the loggia, he tried to phone me.”
Electing the first Jesuit pope and the first Latin American pope, the College of Cardinals showed that “the Church is moving, dynamic, open, with the prospect of new developments before it … What is beautiful and encouraging is that even in our day things that no one expected happen and they demonstrate that the Church is alive and brimming with new possibilities.”
Benedict XVI told Seewald that preparing for death was part of his daily routine. It’s not a matter of getting his earthly affairs in order, he said, “but of preparing to pass the ultimate examination before God”.
He said that, as he aged, he found many Scripture passages “more challenging in their greatness and gravity”. He said the approach of death made God’s judgment a more pressing concern.
“Despite all the confidence I have that the loving God cannot forsake me, the closer you come to His face, the more intensely you feel how much you have done wrong,” he told Seewald.“I can now pray the breviary deeply and slowly,” the retired pope said, “and thereby deepen my friendship with the Psalms, with the Fathers [of the Church].”
He said he spent the whole week preparing his Sunday homily for his small household, thinking about the Scripture readings, allowing his thoughts to “mature slowly, so I can sound out a text from many different angles: what is it saying to me? What is it saying to the people here in the monastery?”
Pope Benedict listed four current favourite prayers, three of which were written by Jesuits:
■ The “Suscipe” of St Ignatius of Loyola, which begins: “Take, Lord, receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it.”
■ A prayer from St Francis Xavier: “I do not love you because you can give me paradise or condemn me to hell, but because you are my God.”
■ St Nicholas of Flue’s “Take me as I am.”
He also likes the General Prayer composed in German by St Peter Canisius, which begins: “Almighty and eternal God, Lord, heavenly Father. Look with the eyes of your gratuitous mercy at our sorrow, misery and distress; have mercy on all Christian believers.”
Benedict XVI said he agreed with a remark made by the priest and theologian Romano Guardini: “In old age, it does not get easier, but more difficult.”
“There is something true in it,” he said. “On the one hand, in old age you are more deeply practised, so to speak. Life has taken its shape. The fundamental decisions have been made.”
The Pope also said, “one feels the difficulties of life’s questions more deeply; one feels the weight of today’s godlessness, the weight of the absence of faith, which goes deep into the Church. But then one also feels the greatness of Jesus Christ’s words.”
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