The personal secretary of Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, could not hold back tears as he recalled what the pope emeritus once told him about his journey to heaven.
In June, the Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI Foundation hosted a celebration for the 95th birthday of the pope emeritus at the Nymphenburg Palace in Munich, Germany. The event was aired live on EWTN in German.
Gänswein was visibly choked up as he recalled that Benedict XVI once told him that “I would never have believed that the last stretch of the journey that would take me from the Mater Ecclesiae monastery (where he currently resides) to the gates of heaven with St. Peter would be so long.”
On April 16, less than nine years after his resignation from the pope on February 28, 2013, Benedict XVI turned 95.
Since 2003, while Benedict XVI was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Gänswein, 65, has accompanied Benedict XVI as his personal secretary. He is currently the prefect of the papal household.
The German prelate said Benedict XVI made the comment to him “a few years ago” while they were talking about “the burden and hardship of old age and the criticism of his person and his work that flares up again and again.”
“Benedict responded to the important questions and challenges of the time frankly and convincingly and always in the light of the Incarnation,” Gänswein said.
He then noted that today, “the pope emeritus is a very old man, physically frail and, thank God, still with an alert, wide-awake mind and gaze.”
Benedict’s voice, he said, “is becoming increasingly low and incomprehensible,” noting that “the last few years have sapped his strength.”
Through it all, he continued, “he has preserved the humble serenity of his heart.”
Gänswein also said Benedict’s humor “shines forth again and again” and noted “his personal meekness, which has always been a trademark of his personality.”
“He was as happy as a child when he was informed about today’s ceremony. And he asked me to send all of you cordial blessings,” Gänswein concluded.