Vatican City, Sep 20, 2018 / 08:35 am
In newly-surfaced letters from Benedict XVI, the pope emeritus has defended his abdication, and warned that continued anger at his decision risked undermining the papal office. The private correspondence, excerpts from which were carried in a German newspaper, was reportedly addressed to Cardinal Walter Brandmüller.
According to the letters, Benedict said he understood "the deep-seated pain" the end of his papacy caused the cardinal and others. At the same time, the pope emeritus wrote, he recognized that for some people the pain had "turned into an anger that no longer merely concerns my resignation, but increasingly also my person and my papacy as a whole."
German newspaper Bild carried the excerpts in a story published Sept. 20. The letters were originally sent in November, 2017.
Bild did not name the recipient but referred to him only as "a German cardinal" who had made critical comments about Benedict's resignation in an interview. On the same day, The New York Times reported that it had received a copy of the two letters in their entirety from Bild, and named Cardinal Brandmüller as the recipient.