In 2005 he predicted that Joseph Ratzinger would be elected as the new pontiff after the death of Pope John Paul II. Seven years later he prophesied that Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI. will resign. Without a doubt, Andreas Englisch knows his way around the Vatican. The German has lived in Rome since the late 1980s and accompanies the heads of the Catholic Church on their travels and in the Vatican. The expert speaks to the star about the Pope Emeritus, his legacy and the future of the Catholic Church.
Mr. Englisch, you have a book about the late Pope Benedict XVI. written and spoken to him several times. How would you describe him?
Shy. Reserved. He was someone who rarely made friends. There were certainly men and women in his life who sought his friendship, but it was a one-way street. Ratzinger only lived with his family, his sister and brother, and very few people around him. I know his best friend, former secretary Josef Clemens, very well. The two have lived together for over 30 years. Ratzinger was a scientist. He spent time in his study and he found the outside world threatening. If you read his books you will see that he quoted people like the Doctor of the Church Augustine – and he has been dead for a millennium and a half. Another whom Ratzinger loved was Bonaventure, who died in 1274. The Pope Emeritus had connections to people who came from another world. Our world was not his.
You said in an interview after Benedict’s death that he wasn’t actually the right man for the papal office – is that exactly why?
I remember once attending a ceremony in his honor. There were many well-wishers, but he wanted to leave eventually. And then he was asked why he didn’t want to receive the other well-wishers. Then Ratzinger said, “I don’t like being the center of attention.” At that time he was still prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. And I thought, for someone who doesn’t like being the center of attention, the papal office, where you’re constantly in the center of attention, must be hell.
Could he have “simply” refused to be elected Pope in 2005?
Yes, because after every election you will be asked whether you accept the election. He wanted to refuse, but his friend, Cardinal Meisner from Cologne, apparently talked him into it for a long time. But Ratzinger had set himself a trap: When he held the funeral service for John Paul II, he kept saying that he was called to his office by God and that he always came. Ratzinger could hardly say that God called him and he didn’t come. It was a tricky situation. But he kept telling me that he didn’t feel suitable for the position.
In an obituary you wrote that Benedict had “disenchanted” the papacy and that a new era was now beginning. What do you mean?
When Ratzinger was elected, the church still walked around with a swollen chest. But that era is over. Francis was already elected pope of a church that has to bury its head in the dust because of the abuse scandals and the mass resignations. Ratzinger was the last pope of a self-confident church. Resignation disenchants the office in that God uses a man through the Holy Spirit. If a pope resigns, it means that in future popes can be asked to resign. It shows that the decision is more in the hands of a man than in God’s hands. The office has become more human.
With Benedict, the first German pope has died in several centuries. Do you think that weakens the importance of the church in Germany?
I believe Ratzinger’s difficult stance on all things sexual abuse has weighed heavily on the Church in recent years. It’s more of a liberation because most of the church is absolutely ready to clean up there.
Now that there is no pope who has resigned, does that clear the way for Pope Francis to resign? He has been struggling with health problems for some time and even canceled a trip in 2022.
Yes, I can imagine. He himself said: “I have signed my resignation letter and if I am no longer medically able to do my job and should then also no longer be able to resign, then the letter is prepared.” That can happen, but he won’t do it right now. He wants to carry out the reforms he has set himself. He now has one less problem, because Ratzinger, as head of the traditionalists, has thrown a spanner in the works for years. The fact that Francis now has a free hand for the first time could ensure that there will be plenty of surprises in the pontificate.
To what extent did Benedict interfere in the plans of his successor?
There were some attacks. The first was quite simple: Ratzinger had written an encyclical before his resignation that he can no longer publish and he forced Francis to publish it under his name. The second was about the remarried divorced. These are actually excluded from all sacraments in the Catholic Church. Francis reversed that, but Ratzinger and his group took massive action against it. For example, he said that Francis made a mistake.
Would you say that this model of a resigning pope and an incumbent pope has turned out badly?
It weighs on the church, sure. But it couldn’t be prevented. When a pope resigns, a new one must be elected. I think this will happen again and again in the future.
