VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
The Pope Emeritus will be leaving Castel Gandolfo in a few days and returning to the Vatican
Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City
Benedict XVI returns to the Vatican. He left the Holy See on 28 February, the last day of his pontificate, which ended officially on the evening of that same day, following his resignation. Unless there is last minute change of plan, the Pope Emeritus is expected to return to the Vatican on 1 May. The former cloistered monastery where the former Pope will be living, is now ready for him to move in. The monastery is a four story building, with communal areas and twelve monastic cells, a new wing measuring approximately 450 metres squared, a chapel, the cloistered nuns’ choir, a library, a gallery, an evergreen hedge, a heavy gate that separates the cloistered area from the other parts of the monastery and a large garden where peppers, tomatoes, courgettes, cabbages, lemons and oranges are grown.
Benedict XVI will be living with the four members of the “Memores Domini” association and his personal secretary, Georg Gänswein, Prefect of the Papal Household. Others who are allowed to stay in the monastery are the Pope Emeritus’ brother and the German deacon who joined the small former “papal family” and assists Ratzinger when Fr. Georg is busy in the Apostolic Palace. The move will make Mgr. Gänswein’s life much easier as, up until now, he has had to go back and forth from Castel Gandolfo to the Vatican every day. It will also make it easier for Francis to visit his predecessor.
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