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16 texts by Pope Benedict were published posthumously.
After the death of Pope Benedict XVI. († 95) his last texts, which he has written since his resignation in 2013, have now been published. The volume bears the title “Che cos’e il cristianesimo – quasi un testamento spirituale” (“What is Christianity – almost a spiritual testament”) Islam and also the priesthood. At the moment the book is only available in Italian. One passage is currently causing a stir.
“Gay clubs were founded in several seminars, which acted more or less openly and changed the climate in the seminars significantly,” it says at one point. Aspiring priests would have lived together in a seminary. He also experienced something like this in the Vatican.
It’s not the first time such allegations have been made. Angelo Sodano († 94), who died last summer and was Secretary of State at the Vatican for almost 15 years, was at the center of a series of controversies. In his book Sodom. Power, homosexuality and double standards in the Vatican », the French journalist Frédéric Martel (55) denounced Sodano’s lifestyle. The French spoke to around 1,500 people, including many cardinals and bishops, for his book. He is of the opinion that the “large majority” of men in the Vatican are gay and would keep this secret.
His texts were read secretly
In his final texts, Benedict also criticizes priests and “individual bishops,” not just “in the United States,” who “rejected the Catholic tradition as a whole, seeking a kind of new, modern catholicity in their dioceses. A bishop even showed pornography to seminarians, probably to give prospective priests the chance to “defend against anti-religious behavior”.
He further writes: «Perhaps it is worth noting that in not a few seminaries students caught reading my books were considered unfit for the priesthood. My books were hidden as harmful literature and only read in secret, so to speak».
Francis broke Benedict’s heart
The Catholic Church was also startled by the memoirs of Archbishop Georg Gänswein (66), who was Benedict’s private secretary for many years and was a close confidante. The book, entitled “Nient’altro che la verità” (“Nothing but the truth”), was published a week after the pontiff’s funeral. In it, Gänswein describes tensions between Popes Benedict and Francis (86).
Among other things, Gänswein claims that Francis “broke the heart” of his predecessor by restricting the use of the Latin language, which he himself had developed as a conservative.
The book also describes Joseph Ratzinger’s rise to the head of the Catholic Church, his scandalous pontificate (2005 to 2013) and finally his retreat to a monastery in the Vatican after his surprising resignation in 2013. (jmh / AFP)