The Pope Emeritus Benedict XVIdied on the last day of 2022 at the age of 95, left a spiritual testament in which he asked for “sincere forgiveness” to those he might have harmed in his life, but now the “main reason” for his resignation in 2013 was revealed, which gave the cardinal a chance Jorge Bergoglio becomes Pope Francis.
As revealed by a German weekly, in a letter that Benedict XVI sent weeks before his death to his biographer, the German Peter Seewald, he states that insomnia was the “central reason” for his resignation in 2013.
The letter sent on October 28 was revealed by the weekly Focus. In the text, Joseph Ratzinger explains that “the main reason” for his resignation as head of the Catholic Church in February 2013 was “insomnia that [lo] accompanied continuously by the World Youth Days in Cologne”in August 2005, months after succeeding John Paul II.
His personal physician then prescribed “powerful remedies”, which at first allowed him to keep up with his workload. But according to the pope emeritus, sleeping pills have finally reached their “limits.”
Taking sleeping pills also caused an accident during a trip to Mexico and Cuba in March 2012. The morning after the first night, Benedict XVI confirmed that his handkerchief was “totally drenched in blood“, according to the letter cited by Focus. “I must have hit myself somewhere in the bathroom, and I fell,” writes the pontiff.
The doctor made the wounds invisible, and a new personal doctor insisted after the accident that the German pope’s sleeping pills be reduced. Likewise, he advised him to only show up in the morning during his travels abroad.
In the letter, Ratzinger says he is aware that these medical restrictions “were sustainable only for a short period of time”. This confirmation led him to announce his resignation in February 2013, months before the World Youth Days in Rio de Janeiro, which he did not consider himself capable of “facing”.
In this way he resigned early enough for his successor, Pope Francis, to accommodate the visit to Brazil. Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, who surprised the world with his resignation, died in the convent of the Vatican gardens where he lived in retirement.
His pontificate was marked by numerous crises, such as the Vatileaks scandal in 2012, which exposed a large network of corruption in the Vatican, or cases of sexual abuse of minors committed by religious in various countries around the world.
The “spiritual testament” of Benedict XVI
“To all those to whom I have harmed in any way, I sincerely apologize”, reads the document, entitled “My spiritual testament” and published by the Holy See, in German and Italian, after the death of Benedict XVI.
“First of all, I thank God himself, dispenser of all good things, who gave me life and guided me in the various moments of loss, lifting me up every time I began to slip, always giving me the light of his face again”. he has written.
He also thanked his parents who gave his life “at a difficult time” in interwar Germany in 1927, when the country was heading towards Nazism, and his siblings, Maria and Georg.
Furthermore, he expressed his gratitude to the “many friends, men and women” who accompanied him throughout his life and to the teachers and students he had, as well as to his home country of Germany and his native Bavaria, where , he said, he always saw “the splendor of the Creator appear”.
In fact, he addresses the German people directly: “I pray that our land continues to be of faith and I ask you, dear compatriots: do not let yourselves be distracted from the faith”.
With information from agencies
DB extension
Source: Clarin
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.