Pope emeritus Benedict XVI has indicated that currently anyone who opposes gay marriage or abortion is “socially excommunicated” and has warned of the “power of the Antichrist”, in the journalist’s interview book “Benedict XVI, a life” Peter Seewald, that the publisher Droemer Knaur has presented this Monday, May 4 in its German edition and that will be published in Spanish next fall under the label Messenger, from the Loyola Communication Group.
“A hundred years ago, everyone would have seen that it was absurd to talk about gay marriage. Today, anyone who opposes it is socially excommunicated,” says Ratzinger, while adding that “the same applies to abortion and making humans in the laboratory “and expressing his” fear of the spiritual power of the Antichrist “.
Furthermore, Benedict XVI, who announced his resignation from the Pontificate on February 11, 2013, assures in the book that modern society is in the process of “formulating an anti-Christian creed.”
On the other hand, the emeritus Pope sees himself as the target of “cheap propaganda” in the reaction that followed an article he published in 2018 and to his most recent defense of priestly celibacy. “The reaction show that came after German theology is so stupid and malicious that one shouldn’t talk about it. The real reasons for the fact that they wanted to silence my voice I would rather not analyze them,” he points out.
CONSTANT AND GROWING FRIENDSHIP WITH FRANCISCO
In the book, he also points out that the statement made about his regular involvement “in public debates” is “a malicious distortion of reality”, and refers to his personal friendship with Pope Francis, which “has not only been constant but That has grown”.
Similarly, Ratzinger reveals that he was once in love: “Did you ever love a girl?” Asks the journalist. To which the Pope Emeritus responds: “Perhaps.” “Is that a yes?” Seewald insists. “One could interpret it that way,” adds Benedict XVI, specifying that it did not last for a few weeks or months, but “longer.”
‘Benedict XVI, life’ goes through the protagonist’s life trajectory (Germany 1927), his childhood, his academic career as professor of Theology at various German universities; his appointment as Archbishop of Munich and Freising in 1977 and his transfer to the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; his role in this Congregation and his pontificate from 2005, when the conclave named the first German pope in half a millennium, until 2013, when he voluntarily resigned.
“He investigates the origin and personality of the German pope, as well as the dramatic vicissitudes of his life, and reaches – through, among other things, the reconstruction of fractures such as the Williamson and Vatileaks cases – surprising conclusions. It was important keep the critical distance and, nevertheless, consider the facts with the impartiality indispensable for an authentic understanding, “reads the foreword to the book.
Seewald praises Ratzinger as the Pope who strove to open up the Catholic Church in the face of sexual abuse scandals. The author also rejects the widespread thesis that he went from progressive to reactionary in response to the 1968 student revolts. At the time, Ratzinger was a professor at the University of Tuebingen, one of the main centers of protests in Germany.
The journalist also defends Ratzinger against the accusation of playing the “shadow pope” of his successor, Francis, claiming that the accusation dates back to Hans Kueng, a contemporary and rival in Tuebingen in the 1960s.
Seewald describes Ratzinger as a direct man whose opinions have been constant over the decades, but who also shows human traits and self-doubt. In the words of the pope emeritus, the “climax” of his life was his ordination as a priest in his native Bavaria on June 29, 1951 at the age of 24.
The author has spent five years writing this biography by gathering conversations with contemporary witnesses, partners, and Ratzinger employees. His more than 1,000 pages concentrate his whole life as Joseph Ratzinger and as Benedict XVI who will also be released in Italy, France, Poland, Great Britain and the United States.
This book comes after four other interview books already published by Benedict XVI in conversation with Peter Seewald: Salt of the Earth (1996), God and the World (2000), Light of the World (2010) and Last Conversations (2016) .
