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Benedict XVI, Defender of the Faith
My cover article in The Tablet of 15 January 2022, in which I argue that a new biography of Benedict XVI by his longtime German journalist interpreter fails to capture the complexity and nuance of Joseph Ratzinger, and is heavily dependent on the “court” of the pope emeritus, above all his minder, Archbishop Georg Gänswein.
Defender of the faith
A new biography, which portrays Benedict XVI as a reluctant pope, set on rescuing the Church from a hostile modern age, fails to capture the complex, original quality of his thinking.