display
Pope emeritus Benedict XVI.
considers the talk of two Popes active in the Vatican to be nonsense.
“There are no two popes.
The Pope is only one (...) “, said the 93-year-old eight years after his resignation in a conversation published on Monday.
At the same time he underlined in the Italian newspaper “Corriere della Sera”: “It was a difficult decision.
But I met her consciously, and I think I did it right. "
Benedikt, born as Joseph Ratzinger in Bavaria, had given up his position as head of the Catholic Church at the end of February 2013.
Less than two weeks later, Pope Francis from Argentina succeeded him.
Benedict continues to live in the Vatican, in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery.
Archbishop Georg Gänswein is a close confidante of Benedict
Source: dpa
display
The conversation also took place there, as the newspaper reported.
The Bavarian often answered in a thin voice, but was mentally precise.
His private secretary Georg Gänswein, 64, “translated” some things.
Ratzinger emphasized that he still fully supported his decision to resign.
"Some of my friends who are a little 'fanatical' are still upset because they didn't want to accept my decision," he said.
"My conscience is fine"
"Conspiracy theories" arose - for example, that he had sought documents on nepotism in the Papal States because of the "Vatileaks scandal" or because of a plot by a homosexual lobby or the case of traditionalist Bishop Richard Williamson.
display
Benedict had canceled the excommunication of the Holocaust denier and member of the schismatic Society of Pius X.
"But my conscience is fine."
About Pope Francis, 84, planned trip to Iraq at the end of the week, Benedict said: "I think it's a very important trip." For safety reasons and because of the corona pandemic, it is at a difficult time.
He and Francis have already received corona vaccinations.
Archbishop of the Curia Gänswein said that speculations about another resignation from the Pope made little sense on Sunday.
The theoretical possibility "has existed since the papacy".