Benedict XVI asked to be removed as coauthor of a book on priestly celibacy after some suggested he was interfering with the reigning pope, Francis.
Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI distanced himself Tuesday from a book on priestly celibacy and asked to be removed as its coauthor after the project gave the impression that the retired pope was trying to interfere with the reigning one.
Although that position is not new, “From the Depths of Our Hearts” has Benedict chiming in on a fraught issue as Francis weighs whether to allow married men to be ordained priests in the Amazon to cope with a priest shortage there. The controversy made clear once again that the unprecedented reality of a retired and a reigning pope living side by side in the Vatican gardens still has some wrinkles that need to be worked out.
“These defamations are of exceptional gravity,” Sarah, who heads the Vatican’s liturgy office, tweeted at one point. Ignatius clearly has more to gain selling a book authored by a former pope than one written by a Vatican cardinal.
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