Key Moments with Pope Benedict XVI

Archbishop Georg Gänswein was Pope Benedict XVI's private secretary for 19 years. Hardly anyone came as close to the Pope from Germany as he did. At the “Benedict XVI Forum” in Altötting, Bavaria, Gänswein spoke with Andreas Thonhauser, the EWTN Vatican Bureau Chief.

Andreas Thonhauser: Archbishop Gänswein, you don't really need an introduction, because you are well known. You have been at the side of the German Pope for a long time, but above all, you have stood by him. In these almost 20 years that you have supported Pope Benedict XVI, what were the key moments for you?

Archbishop Georg Gänswein: When I think back to 2003, the key moments are when he asked me if I would be willing to be his secretary for a certain period of time because he would be released by St. John Paul II as Prefect Emeritus anyway. I think that was perhaps the greatest deception of his life. So Ratzinger did not retire, but John Paul II died two years later. And then, of course, the first time I was allowed to see the successor of John Paul II in the Sistine Chapel: he was no longer Cardinal Ratzinger, he was Pope Benedict now. And now I'm taking a leap into December 2022. I think a lot about the last days of Pope Benedict, almost every day. These are the moments or the memories that come, whether we want or not, that fill me up and, of course, a lot has happened in between.

Living His Faith

Andreas Thonhauser: After all, he was a man of faith. Can you tell us more about how he lived his faith?

Archbishop Georg Gänswein: It is quite simple. He wrote, preached, and spoke in the same way as he lived his faith. Simple, clear, convincing. So he was not only a great man of words or pencil but also a faithful son of the Church in the way he lived his spiritual life. The simple example: Holy Mass, rosary, breviary, adoration, thanksgiving after Mass, spiritual reading, nothing out of the ordinary at all. That's the continuity, regardless of whether it's snowing outside or going haywire inside. It is simply this continuity that has shaped him and the others. That's also how he created the atmosphere.

A Gentle Nature Misunderstood

Andreas Thonhauser: As an Austrian, I am also familiar with the prejudices against our German neighbors. Some mean people liked to use military analogies to describe Pope Benedict. But you say, no, he wasn't harsh at all, but very gentle.

Archbishop Georg Gänswein: Anyone who has known Pope Benedict even a little must say: The image that has been painted of the "Panzer Cardinal,” of the "Rottweiler of God,” is one of the worst distortions and has — as they say in journalism — become a narrative that has unfortunately left its mark. Just looking into his eyes was enough to see that there is so much leniency there. Today, these images have a greater impact than words and these images lasted until the end of his life.

Facing the End with Serenity

Andreas Thonhauser: How did you experience him in the last years, in the last weeks of his life? Was he afraid of death?

Archbishop Georg Gänswein: I never noticed any fear of death. Perhaps worry. But he was actually cheerful to the end, in his soul, in his heart. The most difficult thing for him was that he had to accept that he was almost no longer able to speak intelligibly at the end, that his language had failed him. He once said very casually: "I believe that the good Lord has taken away my language because I have spoken too much in my life and now I have to learn to be silent."

Adapted by Jacob Stein

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