By Simon Caldwell
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Pope
Benedict XVI
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Pope Benedict XVI
wanted to become a librarian 16 years ago but his request to quit the Vatican
high office was rejected.
His predecessor, Pope John Paul II,
declined his request to spend his last years as the archivist of the Vatican
Secret Archives and as a librarian of the Vatican Library, according to the incumbent
librarian and archivist Cardinal Raffaele Farina.
Speaking in Inside the Vatican
magazine, Cardinal Farina recalled when he was appointed prefect of the Vatican
Library in May 1997 he had a brief meeting with Cardinal Ratzinger in which he
was asked his own opinion of the future pope joining the team.
At the time the future Pope Benedict
was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pope’s doctrinal enforcer.
But he found his job “burdensome” and
wanted to retire to academic study of ancient documents for the rest of his
life.
He asked the Pope if he could step down
from his role when he turned 70 on April 16, 1997, a move which would have
permanently removed him from Vatican politics and from the eyes of the world.
“He
was asking me what I thought of his idea and what being archivist and librarian
of the Holy Roman Church involved,” said Cardinal Farina.
“When I realised what the Pope-to-be
really meant … I expressed clearly how happy I and the whole staff of the
library were to have him join us.”
Had Pope John Paul accepted it his
highly unlikely that the Bavarian-born Pontiff, who is now 85, would ever have become pope.
Pope Benedict has previously said he
“would have liked for beloved John Paul II to permit me to devote myself to
study and research into the interesting documents and materials … true
masterpieces that help us to review the history of humanity and of
Christianity”.
Source: The Telegraph.
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