VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
The German cardinal Brandmüller: “The excuse given by the suspected moles is not acceptable”
Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City
“The Pope is sad but calm. He knows the Church needs to cross this stormy sea and that he must share the experience of Jesus…” 83 year old Walter Brandmüller, a cardinal since November 2010 and President of the Pontifical Committee of Historical Sciences, has known Ratzinger from when they were both university professors in Bavaria and has a long experience of working in the Roman Curia.
You are German and have known the Pope for a long time. How do you think he feels? Why does he seem so calm?
Benedict XVI is obviously saddened, but is certainly calm because he totally trusts in the help of the Almighty. He is aware that the Church must cross the tempestuous sea of this world; it must face its problems. Difficulties are not ideal, but I think they are normal occurrences in life.”
In the book-length interview with Peter Seewald, “Light of the World” the Pope said that one must expect attacks and be ready to resist them.
“The Gospel is a sign of contradiction and the contradiction of the world almost seals the authenticity of the message. The destiny of the disciple of Jesus is that of sharing his experience of suffering. I believe that this certainty of faith is at the root of Benedict XVI’s tranquillity.”
As a historian of the Church, how do you see current events? Are there similar instances from the past that could be compared with the present?
“Well, in the middle ages, a French king, Philip the Handsome reached the point of falsifying papal bulls to discredit Boniface VIII. And one must not forget that at the end of the nineteenth century, during the first Vatican Council, during the course of the discussion on papal infallibility there were leaks of documents which were used as the basis for articles to discredit the Council. The articles were published in Germany and signed with the pseudonym “Quirino’s letters”.
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