Fifth anniversary of the renunciation: former Secretary Xuereb recounts those “strong moments” to Vatican news: that phone call from the new Pope with the cordless phone after dinner.
“I had my cordless phone with me, this call arrives so I pass the phone to Pope Benedict and I hear him say, “Holiness, I promise from now on my total obedience and my prayer”. These are moments I cannot forget...”. These were Pope emeritus’ first words to his successor Francis on the evening of his election. He pronounced them right after dinner, using a cordless phone. Ratzinger was able to repeat to the newly elected Bishop of Rome, the words he had spoken at his last meeting with the cardinals before leaving the Apostolic See, when, without knowing who would his successor be, he had told them, “Among you there is also the future Pope to whom I promise my unconditional reverence and obedience”.
Monsignor Alfred Xuereb, today secretary general of the Secretariat for the Economy, formerly special secretary of Benedict XVI (2007-2013) and also in the early months of Francis, tells us in detail what happened in Castel Gandolfo on the evening of March 13,2013. Xuereb was interviewed by Alessandro Gisotti for Vatican news, the Holy See’s unified media portal.
“What are the strongest moments?” “Obviously - Xuereb says - “those tied to his renunciation. I remember very well on 5 February 2013 when Pope Benedict invites me to sit in his studio and announces the great decision of his renunciation. At first, it almost came naturally to ask him, “But why don’t you think about it a little bit? But then I refrained [from asking] because I was convinced that he had been praying for a long time. On the contrary, at that very moment I was reminded of a detail. For a fairly long period, when he, in the sacristy, before he began to celebrate mass in the private chapel, remained in prayer for a long time; and despite the clock striking the hour of the beginning of mass, he ignored it and remained gathered in front of the crucifix in the sacristy. I believed, then, that he was praying for something very important. That 5 February, when I was listening to Pope Benedict’s great decision, I thought, “So, most probably, he was praying for this very reason! Then, of course, another strong moment was the public announcement during the consistory of February 11th. I cried the entire time, and even during lunch he understood that I was very emotional and I told him, “Holy Father, but were you calm, were you serene? And he answered me with a firm “yes”, because he had already gone through his labor. He was serene precisely because he was sure that he had examined the thing well and that he was in peace, in God’s will!”.
An extremely strong moment (momento fortissimo) - the Maltese prelate recounts in the interview - for me was the moment of his leave, because he told me one again: “You will go with the new Pope”. And so, when Pope Francis was then elected Pope, he wrote a letter to him reiterating his willingness to leave me free if he had needed me. And when the day arrived to leave Castel Gandolfo to go with Pope Francis - from the Secretariat of State they told me: “Hurry up, pack your bags, because Pope Francis is opening the correspondence on his own” - I entered Pope Benedict’s studio to announce this, and I asked him, crying, for his blessing. He very calmly stood up, I was on my knees, and gave me the blessing with which he let me go”.
Xuereb tells he recently met the Pope Emeritus, “He invited me on the day of my birthday (14 October last ed.) to celebrate mass and then to have breakfast. I found him with a very lively mind, he asked so many things... Then, the looks he gave me during breakfast made me think, “But how happy am I to see you again! He also remembered very well details concerning my family, my mother, even my mother’s cats! Obviously, physically, he is very fragile. He is already almost 91 years old and yet my mother who is “only” 82 is not in the physical condition that he is in!”.
About the gesture of renunciation, Xuereb defined it as “grandiose” and “heroic”: “He understood especially during the flight in Mexico that he was no longer able to make long journeys. And soon was due the World Youth Day in Brazil, and so he realized that he was no longer able to travel, to make all these efforts... He made a heroic act, in my opinion, because he thought rather of the Church, of the love for the Church which was much greater than the love for himself, for his ego. He did not mind what people might say on his account, that perhaps he did not have the courage to go forward... He always remained calm, once he understood that God asked him to do this act of government, loving the Church more than himself”.
Speaking of the cordial relationship between Benedict and his successor, Xuereb said, “Before Pope Francis comes out before the world, from the Loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, he tries to call Pope Benedict to greet him. We were in the television room, where the telephone is always silent, so we did not hear it, and this explains Pope Francis’ delay to the Loggia. Then, they called us again during dinner and asked us, “But, where were you? We were in front of the TV!...”-” Pope Francis will call you after dinner”. I took my cordless phone with me, this phone call arrives and I pass the phone to Pope Benedict and I hear him say, “Holiness, I promise from now on my total obedience and my prayer”. These are moments that I cannot forget.
Finally, Pope Ratzinger’s former special secretary stressed that the choice “to live a retreated life” was taken “precisely in order to be able to prepare for the final encounter with the Lord”, but “living this with profound spirituality, offering prayers and also offering the fragility of his health condition in favor of the Church, for the Pope and for the Church”.
