I've had this interview set aside a whole week until I found the time to translate it, so here it is. I understand it was originally written for this month's issue of INSIDE THE VATICAN, and I see it listed in the Table of Contents, but the article is not available online....
An antidote against 'published opinion':
Interview with Mons. Georg Gänswein
by Angela Ambrogetti
Translated from
Sunday, Dec. 12, 2010
Night has just fallen on Rome and the dome of St. Peter's shines golden. At the Porta Sant'Anna, the vice commandant of the Swiss Guard, who was recently named, awaits me - an excellent occasion to congratulate him.
We arrive at the Cortile San Damaso by car. In the dark, the lights from the loggias of the Apostolic Palace, muted by curtains, seem mysterious and solemn.
We enter into the Second Loggia. The elevator brings us to the Reception Hall. Passing through gives me time to look at the frescoes which makes me feel both within and outside the Church's measure of time.
At the door to the Sala Clementina, the vice commandant leaves me with the ushers, present-day successors of those who have done the honors in the papal apartments for centuries.
For this appointment, we are to use the grand Corner Salon. Pinturicchio, Caravaggio, Scorzelli and Messina, gilded fabric and red couches welcome the guest who is slightly intimidated.
Mons. Georg Gänswein arrived most punctually with his usual reassuring smile and two rosaries blessed by the Pope. The atmosphere becomes more familiar, and I find it normal to start our interview on a light note: that Peter Seewald used four tape recorders for his interviews with the Holy Father, but I only have two. The monsignor replies with a smile.
He gave us this interview to speak about his book that was published to mark the first five years of Benedict XVI's Pontificate:
Benedetto XVI. Urbi et Orbi. Con il Papa a Roma e per le vie del mondo. (Benedict XVI: Urbi et Orbi, With the Pope in Rome and around the world).
He wrote it at the insistence of the German publishers Herder, and on which he worked many weeks by shortening his sleeping hours. Originally published in German, the Vatican publishing house LEV published an Italian edition which which won the 2010 San Michele literary prize of Capri in the category of Pictures and Documentation. And when he accepted the award, the Pope's private secretary offered a reflection on the first 'lustrum' of Benedict XVI's Pontificate.
The book has become LEV's current top seller among its publications on the Pope's travels and speeches. Is it also a way of expressing the sense of the Petrine ministry in the light of Vatican II?
Yes, it is a book for the Pope, about the Pope, but also, by the Pope, in a way. A book addressed to the eyes, the heart and the mind. The five years seen through his travels are like a string of pearls running through his Pontificate, conveying the line of his Magisterium.
If one looks closely, every trip has its own characteristics, as I sought to underscore, and every trip has left its own special mark. Reviewing these five years, one can see what have been the most important points of Pope Benedict's Magisterium. And I think this book manages to present a summary of the past five years in 120 pages.
The photographs are certainly among the book's strong points. But another characteristic is that you did not try to hide or gloss over some difficulties and rough spots that are part of the story of every trip. Is that an added value?
I wanted to be completely sincere. One cannot hide things that have happened. I did not want to, shall we say, take away the teeth or to 'soften' the accounts, so some critical episodes are appropriately discussed in the book.
[I wonder which ones!]
Let us consider the photographs. What they show of the Pope, his gestures. Because there are those who say that Benedict XVI does not communicate with gestures. And yet...
You have touched on a very important theme. Anyone who says that this Pope lacks 'gestures' should look through the book and then revisit his opinion. Because this book speaks through the pictures above all. For most people, pictures matter more than words. And I think this book is a testimonial to a Pope who speaks not just with words but with his gestures as well...
At the awards night in Capri, you said something about the differences between Popes throughout history: that water always remains the same but, filtered through different kinds of terrain, it takes different characteristics. Can we say that the true Joseph Ratzinger emerges in this book, and not just Pope Benedict XVI?
Who
is Joseph Ratzinger! I wished to underscore the continuity between Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict without detracting from or hiding the great difference between their personalities. The person of John Paul II is obviously totally different from that of Joseph Ratzinger. But despite this difference in their personalities, their continuity lies in the Petrine ministry, and the spirit with which both persons live it.
Let us review a few instances. Cologne 2005 - when Benedict XVI leads a million young people to kneel in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament - which was a different way to experience these vast mega-assemblies, because as Benedict says, the Pope is not a rock star...
Precisely, It was a message to the world. But above all, it was an experience for all those who were there - a very strong personal experience. I remember very well how I felt, looking at it from Marienhügel (Mary's Hill) - as they now call the little hill on which the altar was built: To see this adoration, this act of silence, was, for myself, to be confirmed in my faith.
Faith and reason, the dictatorship of relativism, a dialog based on the truth - these are leitmotifs in Benedict XVI's Magisterium. But your book also brings out other themes: religious freedom, self-determination of peoples, the defeat of poverty, rejection of violence....
You said it well. A leitmotif brings harmony - it is not just the
tonus rectus (the right tone); it also brings out other tones that together form a beautiful melody. Such a leitmotif is like the root from which a tree grows and takes its strength.
On the trip the United States - two high points: the speech before the United Nations and the prayer at Ground Zero. On the one hand, the Pope convinces and persuades; on the other, he is moved, and he moves others.
Yes. Whoever sees or has been at Ground Zero saw this huge hole in the ground, possibly the world's biggest construction site, and one cannot help but be moved. On the other hand, at the UN, the Pope came to give voice to Christ in order to convince the world that Truth has to be the last word.
In Sydney, can we say that we found out more about the 'ecologist' Pope with his address on Nature and creation?
We can never forget that God is not only the Redeemer but also the Creator. And creation is far more than just the environment or ecology - which is just a small aspect of Creation. But whenever Creation is no longer respected as the work of God, then it is clear than the entire environment, not just the physical, does not work. But where Creation is respected as a gift of God, then the environment is well, ecology works.
All of Benedict XVI's trips have had a strong Marian connotation. There is always a visit to a Marian shrine. And if there is no time, then there is a homage, a song of praise, as in Barcelona... [What a pity he could not have taken a brief helicopter ride to the Shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat in the Benedictine monastery just outside Barcelona!]
Yes, but then it is clear that wherever the Lord is, his Mother cannot be missing...
And are Benedictine monasteries also to be considered in interpreting this Pontificate?
Yes. The Pope himself indicated this when he was asked many times at the start to explain why he chose Benedict for his papal name. Why, for instance, he did not choose to be called John Paul III. In this case, he did not want to be a copy of someone whom he would never be.
In short, this book should be considered as some kind of guide to follow, or of signs to look for, to avoid that people are too conditioned by what you call 'published opinion'...
Yes, it's a bit like an antidote to published opinion. Everyone is free, obviously, to read whatever he wants, when he wants to, which newspapers, which books. But reading exerts an influence, that is clear.
What I sought to do in this book, both with the photographs and the texts commenting on the photographs, is to provide signposts - and the reader is free to make his judgment.
The trips since May 2010 are obviously not included in the book. But what can you tell us about the last trip to Spain?
In Santiago, the pilgrim Pope, with the pilgrim's cloak - that was very beautiful! And then, the Pope in Barcelona, in what is possibly the most secularized city in Europe - he was the Pope of beauty, the beauty of art which is an aspect of the beauty of truth.
These were two memories which are very very dense with meaning, which the Holy Father experienced - and which, beside, him, I can say I experienced to the same degree.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 19/12/2010 22:50]