Rumors that Pope Benedict resigned under pressure are ‘groundless’- Archbishop Gänswein
April 06, 2017
Reports the Pope Benedict XVI was pressured into resignation are “groundless,” Archbishop Georg Gänswein has told an Italian television audience.
Archbishop Gänswein, the personal secretary to the former Pope, rejected claims that American President Barack Obama was involved in a plan to orchestrate the papal resignation. “It’s not true; it is invented,” he told the Matrix TV program.
“Pope Benedict is not a person who gives in to pressure,” the archbishop said. “Quite the contrary.” He assured his interviewer that Pope Benedict made the decision to resign entirely by himself.
Questioned about pressure from a “gay lobby” within the Vatican, Archbishop Gänswein said that it was not a major factor—that its influence was “a hundred times exaggerated.” He indicated that there was a problem within the Roman Curia, but “there was an attempt to put things right and to give the necessary response.”
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