This anecdote has been revealed by Archbishop Georg Gaenswein in a interview granted to the German television network Zdf (and posted in the religious information portal korazym.org). Monsignor Gaenswein is Benedict XVI’s private secretary and the Prefect of the Pontifical Household under Pope Francis, thus playing the role of sort of a «bridge between two Popes.»

In this capacity, Monsignor Ganswein also transmitted the messages (always more frequent) and invitations Pope Francis sends to Pope Benedict.  In July 2013, Benedict XVI was invited to take part of the unveiling of the statue of Saint Michael the Archangel in the Vatican gardens. Following that, Pope Francis visited the monastery Mater Ecclesiae in Vatican City State, where the Pope emeritus is now living. The visit Pope Francis paid Benedict to wish him a merry Christmas was then followed, shortly after Christmas, by a lunch together at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where Pope Francis is living. And finally, Pope Francis invited Benedict XVI to take part in the Consistory of February 22, when the Pope emeritus sat among the cardinals, as first in dignity but at the same time “primus inter pares.”

«The Pope emeritus is an institution,» Pope Francis said in a recent interview. That Pope Francis gives particular consideration to the recommendations and the presence of this institution is proved by the fact the he sent Benedict XVI the first printed copy of the interview he granted to the editor of “Civiltà Cattolica”, Father Antonio Spadaro. They were not mere notes. Pope Francis asked Benedict XVI for comments. And Benedict XVI – in Monsignor Gaenswein’s words – made his homework and sent Pope Francis a series of remarks, in four pages.

What the remarks were about is a mystery that Monsignor Gaenswein does not want to unveil. In any case, Father Spadaro recently published a book which included the interview, and explained in that there had been some touch-ups, with unedited part of the interviews and some slight modifications. «It is a sort of definitive version,» fr. Antonio Spadaro maintained. This is significant.

In fact, the counsel of Benedict XVI can be seen behind some of Pope Francis’ recent decisions. Step by step, one piece after another of advice, Pope Francis reshaped his revolution. He institutionalized the group of Eight Cardinals (which he first thought should be only informal). He has limited his vague statements, which are now more focused on the gospel and are less off-the-cuff comments.  He has started to trust and value advisers from within the Church, after a season in which the (really expensive) hiring of external consultants had become, it seems, the rule.

Certainly, there is also some of Benedict XVI’s influence in the trust that the incumbent Pope is  increasingly placing on Monsignor Alfred Xuereb, formerly the Pope emeritus second secretary and now the first secretary of Pope Francis, thanks to a recommendation letter Benedict XVI wrote for him.

Xuereb, a Maltese, has a diplomatic background few seem to know much about, and great tact addressing issues.  He was first appointed Pope Francis’ delegate in the pontifical commissions dealing with the Institute for Religious (a.k.a. IOR) and with the economic structure of the Holy See, and then prelate general secretary of the newly established Secretariat for the Economy.

In the end, both of Benedict XVI’s secretaries are playing key roles in this pontificate. This certainly bothers those who have supported the narrative that there was a need, after Benedict XVI’s pontificate, for a change in course. Maybe we should read under this light the most recent attacks against Georg Gaenswein, the first to be under attack in the Vatileaks scandal and yet working side by side to both Popes. A media outlet has called for Gaenswein to resign from his position of confidence to the Pope, because of some statements made in an interview to a German media which have been taken out of proportion.

Monsignor Gaenswein and Monsignor Xuereb are very valuable to a Pope that, as has been noted, engages reforms in rushes of impetus, and without having a general project (as he admitted in his most recent interview).

Pope Francis nevertheless wants to walk on and continue the path traced by Benedict XVI, who made of the joy of the faith the main focus of his pontificate.  A joy he linked to the reasonableness of faith. Benedict strongly spoke against the Church becoming entrenched behind a fortress of moralisms, but rather always restated the truth of the faith. He asked for a demundanization of the Catholic Church, and at the same time underscored that the Curia and the ecclesiastical institution are part of the body of Christ, i.e. the Church.

Every assertion by Benedict XVI was balanced by a further explanation. This is something that appears to be missing in Pope Francis’ dialectic. Beyond the broad discussion about Pope Francis’ discussion on negotiable and non-negotiable values (which can only be understood if placed in an Italian context), Pope Francis has shown that he does not wish to argue against the spirit of the world: he prefers to run to the encounter of the world. This approach is commendable, and at the same time carries the risk of Pope Francis remaining vague on important themes, not directly addressing the issues at the heart of the Church today.

In fact, Pope Francis acts instinctively. Monsignor Xuereb revealed in an interview that, when Pope Francis must take a decision, he prays and meditate, and when he feels something is persistently coming back to mind, he understands it is the right decision to take. So, to counterbalance Pope Francis’ instinctiveness, there is a need for someone to show him the nuances and guide the balanced dialectic needed when you are the Bishop of Rome. Who better than Benedict to advise the pope?

Benedict XVI began his pontificate acting as a professor, favoring wide open debate. Thus creating much discussion, and at the same time several controversies: but it was always the Pope speaking.

Benedict XVI later fine-tuned his speeches, calibrated his approach and found a way to express himself in a more balanced (I would say ‘Papal’) way. He only returned to the “professor Ratzinger” mode in the last part of his pontificate, when he felt free from the bounds of his ministry. Pope Francis is now called to take a qualitative jump, to really become a Pope in words and in the government of the Church.

Benedict XVI is probably the main person responsible for Pope Francis’ seeking this qualitative jump. Benedict kept the promise he made of obeying and honoring his successor, to the point of becoming an influential and appreciated adviser to the Pope.

The last interview granted by Pope Francis also opens up new scenarios for the future. Pope Francis hinted that “perhaps” there will be other Popes emeritus, leaving open the possibility that he would resign as well in the future. If Benedict XVI is still alive at that time, will there be then a sort of college of Popes emeritus?

What did the Pope wish when he was 7? «I would like – he wrote – the Volks-Schott, a green suit to celebrate the Holy Mass and a Jesus’ Heart. I will always be good. Best regards, Joseph Ratzinger.» The letter was so peculiar that Maria – the Pope’s sister, who took care of Ratzinger until her death – decided to keep it. The letter was recovered when Ratzinger’s house in Pentling was being restored. The house is now a museum, inaugurated at the end of last summer by Georg Gaenswein, then Benedict XVI’s private secretary. Gaenswein reported that the rediscovery of the letter «made the Pope very happy, and made him smile.»

What is most striking is that little Joseph does not ask for toys or sweets. He asks for the Schott, one of the first books in German with a breviary and missal (with its text in Latin also). At that time, two editions were available in Germany: one for children and one for adults. Little Joseph, through that book, begins to love the liturgy that sets the rhythm of his family’s life. Little Ratzinger then asks for a vestment to celebrate Mass. No surprise, because the Ratzinger brothers used to pretend to be “parish priest”, and their mother made vestments for that. «We pretended to celebrate Mass – Georg Ratzinger, the Pope’s brother, told the American monthly Inside the Vatican – and we had vestments made for us by our mother’s seamstress. In turns, one of us was the priest and the other the altar boy». Finally, little Ratzinger asks for a «Jesus’ Heart» i.e. an image of the Sacred Heart, which his family was very devoted to.

Just an anecdote. But perhaps one should keep in mind this anecdote when Benedict XVI delivers his speeches. Whenever he defends family, there is something about memories of his own family. That it was a happy family, which life rhythm was set by liturgy, and where all rejoiced with one another.  It was a family in which it was sensible to be, because it represented the best for a child’s growth. When he became theologian, Joseph Ratzinger expanded his reflection on the meaning of family, based on the Holy Family of Nazareth. Through the example of the Holy Family, he wanted to explain why a «traditional» family was needed. This defense of family started on strictly theological basis. But also on a rational basis.

An idea the Pope has put front and center in his Christmas address to the Roman Curia. In that address, the Pope generally looks back at the life of the Church in the year that is coming to an end. As usual, the Pope flew high. No hint of Vatileaks, nor of internal problems: in the end, these problems really do not amount to much, just petty miseries of the human condition, when compared to the Church’s challenges and agenda. So, Benedict XVI put on the table three issues that marked the Church’s life and that will be on the agenda for the next ten years: family, dialogue, and new evangelization.

The Papal address starting point is the family.  The Pope approaches the topic through the arguments which the Chief Rabbi of France Gilles Bernheim made in defense of the traditional family. Bernheim also sent to the French President François Hollande a 25 pages brief, to explain all the reasons why he and his community are against «marriages for all».  The Pope states: before, the family was in crisis due to a misconception of freedom; today, the very idea of man is in crisis.

This crisis has a specific name: gender.  It is at the same time a neutral and lethal name, as is much of the new «vocabulary» promoted in United Nations documents and continuously denounced by Holy See officials.

Gender points to the human being that calls his own nature into question. «He – the Pope says, drawing on German idealism philosophy – is now only spirit and will.  The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our environment is concerned, now becomes man’s fundamental choice where he himself is concerned.  Nowadays, there is only the abstract human being, who chooses for himself what his nature is to be». If there is no more duality, if human being loses his identity, there is no more family.  «When the freedom to be creative – Benedict XVI notes, with Bernehim – becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God, as the image of God at the core of his being.  The defence of the family is about man himself.  And it becomes clear that when God is denied, human dignity also disappears.  Whoever defends God is defending man.»

Defending man is the Church’s mission, and integral humanism is the Holy See’s International agenda. This agenda is the basis of the dialogue with states, with societies and with religions. The Church’s– the Pope notes – makes memory part of herself, because «human culture, of which she is a guarantee, has developed from the encounter between divine revelation and human existence.  The Church represents the memory of what it means to be human in the face of a civilization of forgetfulness, which knows only itself and its own criteria.  Yet just as an individual without memory has lost his identity, so too a human race without memory would lose its identity».  And Benedict XVI concludes: «In its dialogue with the state and with society, the Church does not, of course, have ready answers for individual questions.  Along with other forces in society, she will wrestle for the answers that best correspond to the truth of the human condition.»

For what concerns interreligious dialogue, the Pope states that the dialogue does not take place on theological grounds, but on practical and cultural grounds, in order not to lose one’s own identity. How to engage in dialogue? «Dialogue – Benedict XVI says – does not aim at conversion, but at better mutual understanding: that is correct.  But all the same, the search for knowledge and understanding always has to involve drawing closer to the truth. »

And truth is Christ himself, and «both sides in this piece-by-piece approach to truth are therefore on the path that leads forward and towards greater commonality, brought about by the oneness of the truth.» This is also one of the main themes of the first Benedict XVI’s message for the World Day of Peace, meaningfully titled In truth, peace. «Being inwardly held by the hand of Christ – the Pontiff says – makes us free and keeps us safe: free – because if we are held by him, we can enter openly and fearlessly into any dialogue;  safe – because he does not let go of us, unless we cut ourselves off from him.  At one with him, we stand in the light of truth.»

What constitutes the good news, then? Benedict XVI points us to the Gospel passage where Andrew and Simon follow Jesus. Both of them are seekers, and that is why «stimulated by the proclamation, their seeking becomes concrete.» The Pope then explains the proclamation is «effective in situations where man is listening in readiness for God to draw near, where man is inwardly searching and thus on the way towards the Lord.»  The Pope’s wish for Christmas, which is also the agenda for next decades, is to know Jesus better, because as one «walks with Jesus, he is led to the place where Jesus lives, to the community of the Church, which is his body.  That means entering into the journeying community of catechumens, a community of both learning and living, in which our eyes are opened as we walk.»

In the end, it is the same agenda of little Ratzinger. He asked for a Schott as a Christmas gift, a book of liturgies, to lock himself in step with Jesus, starting a long walk in life that brought him to the Papacy.