Description
Author: Pope Benedict XVI
Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 9781472944627
Publisher: Bloomsbury Continuum; Reprint edition
Language: English
Page Count: 288
Publication Date: 11/7/2017
Size: 7.6″ l x 5.2″ w x 0.7″
The story of the first Pope to resign in over 700 years.
Pope Benedict made history when he became the first Pope in over 700 years to resign from office, stunning the Catholic Church the world over. At last, Last Testament is a stunning and frank autobiography from the shy and private man who has since remained cloistered in a former convent in the Vatican gardens. In interviews with Peter Seewald, the Pope Emeritus breaks his silence on corruption within the Vatican, clerical sex scandals, and the challenge of reforming the Papacy.
In these interviews, Benedict discusses such wide-ranging controversies as:
– The “Vatileaks” case in which his butler leaked some of his personal letters that alleged corruption and scandal in the Vatican
– The presence of a “gay lobby” within the Vatican and how he dismantled it
– His alleged Nazi upbringing
– His attempts at cleaning up the “dirt in the church” (clerical sexual abuse)
– The mysterious private secretary “Gorgeous George”
On a more personal level he writes with great warmth of his successor Pope Francis, who he admits has a popular touch, a star quality which Benedict himself has lacked. Much controversy still surrounds Pope Benedict’s Papacy–in this book he addresses these controversies and reveals how at his late age, governing and reforming the Papacy and particularly the Vatican, was beyond him.
Reviews
4.4 rating based on 697 ratings (all editions)
ISBN-10: 1472944623
ISBN-13: 9781472944627
Goodreads: 33606913
Author(s):
Published: 11/7/2017
The story of the first Pope to resign in over 700 years.
Pope Benedict made history when he became the first Pope in over 700 years to resign from office, stunning the Catholic Church the world over. At last, Last Testament is a stunning and frank autobiography from the shy and private man who has since remained cloistered in a former convent in the Vatican gardens. In interviews with Peter Seewald, the Pope Emeritus breaks his silence on corruption within the Vatican, clerical sex scandals, and the challenge of reforming the Papacy.
In these interviews, Benedict discusses such wide-ranging controversies as:
- The “Vatileaks” case in which his butler leaked some of his personal letters that alleged corruption and scandal in the Vatican
- The presence of a “gay lobby” within the Vatican and how he dismantled it
- His alleged Nazi upbringing
- His attempts at cleaning up the “dirt in the church” (clerical sexual abuse)
- The mysterious private secretary “Gorgeous George”
On a more personal level he writes with great warmth of his successor Pope Francis, who he admits has a popular touch, a star quality which Benedict himself has lacked. Much controversy still surrounds Pope Benedict's Papacy--in this book he addresses these controversies and reveals how at his late age, governing and reforming the Papacy and particularly the Vatican, was beyond him.
