“Benedict XVI was a gentleman who reassured me. When I had doubts, I went to his monastery,” Francis said in an interview with the Associated Press (AP). It was the first interview he gave since his predecessor’s death at the end of the year. Previously, Benedict XVI’s private secretary, German Archbishop Georg Gänswein, had spoken on several occasions about the relationship between the current and emeritus pontiff and had also published a book. Gänswein made it clear that there had occasionally been disagreements and tensions between the two. Francis formally denies it: “With Benedict XVI, I lost a father and dear companions”.
