“These pages contain a personal testimony of the greatness of a meek man, a fine scholar, a cardinal, and a pope who made the history of our time. But they are also a firsthand account that seeks to shed light on some misunderstood aspects of his pontificate and to describe the real ‘Vatican world’ from within,” Gänswein said, according to the Italian press release obtained and translated by CNA.
Gänswein worked with Italian journalist Saverio Gaeta, a noted Vaticanista who has written several books about St. John Paul II and the transition from John Paul to Benedict XVI, to tell the story of Benedict’s pontificate.
According to the editorial’s press release, “Today, after the death of the pope emeritus, the time has come for the current prefect of the papal household to tell his own truth about the sinister slanders and obscure maneuvers that have tried in vain to cast shadows on the magisterium and the actions of the German pontiff, and thus, finally, to make known the true face of one of the greatest protagonists of recent decades, too often unjustly denigrated by critics as the ‘Panzerkardinal’ or ‘God’s Rottweiler.’”
“Gänswein proposes the authoritative reconstruction of a very particular period for the Catholic Church, also addressing questions about enigmatic events, such as the ‘Vatileaks’ dossier and the mysteries of the Orlandi case, the pedophilia scandal, and the relationship between the pope emeritus and his successor Francis,” the press release continued.
A native of the Black Forest region of Germany, Gänswein was born in 1956 and ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Freiburg im Breisgau in 1984. He is a doctor of canon law, having earned his degree in 1993.
Gänswein told Vatican Magazine in December 2021 that he decided to become a priest as a result of his curiosity about the meaning of life and his efforts to find answers to life’s biggest questions through study.
