Report: Benedict Critiqued Pope Francis’ Interview On Gay Marriage, Abortion

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - In this photo provided by the Vatican paper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis meets Pope emeritus Benedict XVI in Castel Gandolfo Saturday, March 23, 2013. Pope Francis h... FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - In this photo provided by the Vatican paper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis meets Pope emeritus Benedict XVI in Castel Gandolfo Saturday, March 23, 2013. Pope Francis had traveled to Castel Gandolfo to have lunch with his predecessor Benedict XVI in a historic and potentially problematic melding of the papacies that has never before confronted the Catholic Church. The Vatican said the two popes embraced on the helipad. In the chapel where they prayed together, Benedict offered Francis the traditional kneeler used by the pope. Francis refused to take it alone, saying "We're brothers," and the two prayed together on the same one. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano, File) MORE LESS
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Retired Pope Benedict was offered a chance to critique a landmark interview by his successor last year, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, Benedict’s personal secretary who now heads Francis’ papal household, told a German paper that the new pope sought out his predecessor’s advice on an extensive interview in which he criticized the church’s obsession with “small-minded” rules on abortion, gay marriage and contraception.

Francis received a draft of the interview for vetting before it was published by La Civilta Cattolica. It’s unclear if Benedict provided suggestions on the draft or the final published copy, however.

Gaenswein said he was given a “first copy of the interview” with instructions to deliver to Benedict.

“‘Bring this to Pope Benedict; you will see that the first page after the contents is empty,” he said, according to the Associated Press. “Pope Benedict should write there everything that he has in the way of critiques when he has read it and give it back to me.'”

“Three days later, he said to me, ‘I have four pages here … in a letter, and please give this letter to Pope Francis,'” Gaenswein recalled of Benedict. “He did his homework — he read it and, in accordance with his successor’s request, he did indeed offer some thoughts and some remarks on certain comments or certain questions on which he thought something additional could perhaps be said in another place.”

“Of course I won’t say what, but that was interesting,” he added.

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