Intrigues in the Vatican: where is the book by Monsignor Georg Ganswein, personal secretary of Benedict XVI?

Without Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died on the last day of last year, Pope Francis remains alone in command and begins a new phase of his pontificate.

A clear sign that a complex period is beginning, under attack by conservative sectors who aim to dominate a Conclave in which they are a minority and underline the last stage of the Argentine pontiff’s pontificate. Monsignor represents it George Ganswein, the secretary and fully trusted man of Benedict XVI. He has written a memoir and launched bitter attacks on the Pope.

Is called “Nothing but the Truth” and it was vaguely announced that it would be presented this Thursday.

and the book?

The expectations this Thursday were enormous, but as the hours of the presentation passed, nothing was known fuel all suspicions.

At first it seems like this the meeting four days ago, Monsignor Georg Ganswein with the Pope, of which nothing was reported about the content or duration of the hearing, produced the effect of Silence Ganswein by clear order of the pope.

The concrete thing, this Thursday, is the following. Copies of the book were known to have been delivered to some Vatican correspondentsthe experts who follow the events of the Church from Rome.

But there was no news place or time of presentation. It is likely that it was canceled with the explanation that it never existed.

On the website of the Mondadori publishing house, owned by the tycoon and conservative political leader Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime Minister of Italy, who printed “Nothing but the truth”the book went on sale on Thursday at €19.90 per copy.

Note, however, that it exists a delay in shipments of 8 to 10 days. Told by a bookshop in the center of Rome clarion: “Copies scheduled for today They have not arrived and we don’t know when they will arrive”.

Ganswein’s attack on Bergoglio

Monsignor Ganswein, after the death of the emeritus Ratzinger, gave interviews in which he attacked Pope Francis head-on, lighting the fuse for a powder keg which should explode with his memoir.

He said Benedict XVI was severely shocked when Pope Bergoglio issued the motu proprio “Guardian Traditions”, by which he severely restricted the overture that Joseph Ratzinger made during his reigning pontificate by restoring the Latin Mass, which produced a barrage of praise from conservatives and criticism from progressive sectors.

Ganswein released more reviews to Francisco, reproaching him for having it literally liquidated as Prefect of the Papal Household, a very important position in the Vatican hierarchies.

“Keep the title, but don’t come anymore to work. Dedicate yourself to taking care of Pope Benedict», according to Ratzinger’s historic secretary, Pope Bergoglio was condemned after the publication in Paris of a book signed by Joseph Ratzinger and a «minister» of the Curia, Cardinal Robert Sarah, now retired .

The content was intended brake the impulses launched in the Synod of the Amazon, in 2019, to cover the lack of priests permitting the priestly consecration of the Viri Probatifaithful elders married with children, leaders in their communities.

The Synod had also approved the promotion a female diaconate, breaking the taboo that prohibits the path to the female priesthood.

Indeed, Francis did not approve of any of these audacities by the Amazon Synod.

The Pope responded to the attacks with allusions. The most direct was pronounced during the Sunday Angelus last Sunday. Francis said that “gossip is a lethal weapon that killsit kills love, society and brotherhood”.

What does the book say?

The book “Nothing but the truth” did not come out this Thursday, but it’s already on sale and should hit bookstores in the next few days. Some Vatican correspondents have it in hand.

In the newspaper “Il Fatto Quotidiano” a chapter of the book announces a part dedicated to the mystery of the disappearance, probable kidnapping and death of Emanuela Orlandi, the fifteen-year-old Vatican citizen and daughter of an employee of the Holy See. almost 40 years old Emanuela has disappeared forever in the center of Rome and the Vatican announced the reopening of the investigation a few days ago. In the chapter we read a section dedicated to “The Mystery of Emmanuel”.

The site “El Sismógrafo”, which provides excellent ecclesiastical information, published this Thursday the index of the memoirs of 331 pageswith nine chapters and a preface by Monsignor Ganswein. Vatican expert Saverio Gaeta presents himself as co-author.

In the chapter on Orlandi, Monsignor Ganswein writes: “I have been assured that over the years everything possible had been done for having helped the Orlandi family and for all this information I have made the necessary communications to Pope Benedict”.

And he added: “Commander Giani, head of the Papal Gendarmerie, also concluded that no news had been withheld from the Italian judiciary and that no further hypotheses had matured in order to be able to deepen the investigations in the Vatican.” .

Reading the index reveals the importance of the memories of the archbishop who was the person closest to the Pope who reigned for more than eight years, from April 2005 until his historic resignation from the Church in February 2013. After that, he was for almost ten years Pope emeritus.

Prominent leader of the conservative church they criticized Archbishop Ganswein’s attacks on the pope. This was said by the German cardinal Walter Kasper, a neighbor of Ratzinger “It would have been better to keep quiet.” “Now is not the time for these things,” Kasper told the newspaper “La República.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, Conservative resident of the United States Bishops’ Conference, where he nests the strongest soul and specific to Pope Francis’ opponents, he also criticized Archbishop Gaenswein’s public anti-pope campaigns.

“God is Silence”

They say the Pope reminded Ganswein of this during this week’s audience “God is Silence”. Apparently the order to keep quiet it was abrupt and the future of the still Prefect of the Papal Household is at stake. Pope Ratzinger’s secretary would have received the message proclaiming himself obedient.

The presentation of the book for this Thursday never officially took place because the invitations were individual to the selected Vaticans and until five in the afternoon in Rome (four hours less in Argentina) than the meeting there were no tracks.

Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, who was none other than the prefect of the doctrine of the faith, the Vatican guardian of Catholic orthodoxy whose appointment was not renewed by Pope Francis in 2017, is perhaps the most prestigious figure of the conservatives.

Mueller also criticized Ganswein’s conduct. He said that conflicts in the Church “have always existed but inside an atmosphere of discretion and repaired by the Pope”.

The German Catholic newspaper Die Taesposto wrote that Ganswein wanted at the last minute avoid publication of memoirsbut it was already late.

According to the EFE news agency, Jesuit Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda said in a debate with Cardinal Mueller at the Dante Alighieri Society in Rome that “this whole situation It has been used for the groups that have never accepted the current pontiff”.

Vatican correspondent

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