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Emeritus Pope Benedict’s papal biographer, Peter Seewald says the former pope as “extremely frail”. Seewald’s comments are reported in the Monday edition of the German Passauer Neue Presse. He visited the former pope in Rome on Saturday to present him with his biography. Benedict, 93, reportedly became ill after visiting his sick brother in Germany Read more
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Retired Pope Benedict XVI followed the funeral of his brother, Georg Ratzinger, via livestreaming, reported the German Catholic news agency KNA. Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg said Pope Benedict, 93, was connected to the Mass taking place for his older brother July 8 in the Regensburg Cathedral. Msgr. Georg Ratzinger died on July 1 at Read more
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Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, 93, left the Vatican for the first time last week since his 2013 resignation. Benedict went to visit his older seriously ill brother, Msgr Georg Ratzinger who is being cared for in his home. The Vatican says the Emeritus Pope’s visit was “purely private” and he would stay in the Bavarian Read more
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Loud headlines in both the religious and secular press last week repeated a trope that has become familiar over the past few years: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was speaking out in dramatic ways. Benedict was quoted as saying that the church is threatened by “a worldwide dictatorship of seemingly humanist ideologies,” using same-sex marriage, abortion Read more
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It was only a matter of time. Pope Francis has finally lost his patience and gotten rid of Archbishop Georg Ganswein as prefect of the Papal Household. According to the German weekly, Die Tagespost, the pope put the 63-year-old on “indefinite administrative leave.” He did so, the paper said, because of the German prefect’s involvement Read more
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The Vatican is saying little about a change in duties for Archbishop Gänswein. The Holy See Press Office says the long-time secretary of emeritus Pope Benedict XVI has had his duties as prefect of the papal household “reallocated to others”. It is downplaying 63-year-old Georg Gänswein’s absence from several papal audiences over the past few Read more
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The opulent Roman salon of a wealthy German princess is the location for regular gatherings of a group of ultra-conservative Catholics — including Steve Bannon, former White House strategist once favoured by President Donald Trump — where they plot their campaign to undermine the Papacy of Francis. She is Princess Gloria of Thurn and Taxis, Read more
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Many adjectives describe Cardinal Jaime Ortega, who died last week: father, brother, cardinal of Cuban youth, voice of Cuba’s poor, Cuban bridge to the US, accomplished pianist. He “was an important, and at the same time, controversial man of the church, who played a critical role in gaining ‘more spaces’ so that the Catholic Church Read more
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We are living in a unique moment in church history with an ex-pope, properly credited for having the courage to resign when the problems he faced became overwhelming, living within the Vatican walls. The resignation is best interpreted as Benedict XVI’s act of generosity toward the church. The graciousness Francis has displayed toward his predecessor Read more
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On the evening of April 10, six weeks after the conclusion of the Vatican’s summit on the sex-abuse crisis, the Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, made known his thoughts on the genesis of that crisis in a five-thousand-plus-word essay sent to a periodical for Bavarian priests, quickly translated into English, and then diffused online by Catholic Read more
