The recent statement by the former Pope Benedict XVI.

in his own right is possibly his last.

In the letter published in all languages ​​of the world, Joseph Ratzinger, born in 1927, describes himself as a man who will soon be standing in front of the "dark door of death".

In fact, his strength has dwindled, even speaking is difficult for him.

But in December he gave the authors of an abuse report on his home diocese of Munich and Freising the impression that he was in full possession of his mental faculties and that he had a long-term memory that was almost infallible.

This self-confident demeanor goes well with serene sentences such as the one that, looking back on his long life, he has “plenty of reason to be alarmed and afraid”.

The confession of guilt that all Christians say at the beginning of the celebration of Mass asks him every day whether he shouldn't also speak of "excessive guilt".

At the same time, the soon to be 95-year-old man intoned hope-filled motifs from the Christian art of dying, such as “cheerful courage”, since he firmly trusts “that the Lord is not only the just judge, but at the same time friend and brother”.

Other formulations hardly fit into this humble style.

Ratzinger's words were not intended to stage his departure from this world as a contrast to the last images of his terminally ill predecessor John Paul II.

His entourage placed him in the white papal cassock at the open window of the Apostolic Palace when he was barely in control of his senses.

The maneuver leaves a bitter aftertaste

The clarity that Ratzinger now wanted to create was about his personal involvement in the history of abuse in a church in which he had held high and highest responsibilities since 1977 as Archbishop, Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Pope until his resignation in 2013 wore.

But as always, when Ratzinger portrayed himself as a victim of “hostility ready to jump” after criticism of dubious statements (e.g. after the insinuation of an inner connection between Islam and violence in his Regensburg speech in 2006), the most recent maneuver also leaves a bitter aftertaste .

There is no question of personal responsibility

Not only that, Ratzinger presented a lie to the experts about his role in the admission of a pedo-criminal minister in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising in 1980 as an "oversight" by a "small circle of friends".

In the passages dealing with pain and shame towards those affected by sexual violence, there is no mention of personal responsibility.

It is not an "I", but "we" are "pulled" into this excessive guilt.

The sentence about offenses and mistakes “that happened during my term of office and at the relevant places” is also constructed in the passive voice.

From there it is not far to the stylization of one's own loneliness similar to that which Christ once suffered on the Mount of Olives: the disciples asleep, powerless at the mercy of the powers of darkness. So this letter is a moving but also shocking psychogram of a man who always wanted to have only good intentions with everyone and yet was misunderstood again and again.