Last Testament: In His Own Words - Paperback

by Pope Benedict XVI (Author), Peter Seewald (Author)

The story of the first Pope to resign in over 700 years.

Pope Benedict made history when he became the first Pope in over 700 years to resign from office, stunning the Catholic Church the world over. At last, Last Testament is a stunning and frank autobiography from the shy and private man who has since remained cloistered in a former convent in the Vatican gardens. In interviews with Peter Seewald, the Pope Emeritus breaks his silence on corruption within the Vatican, clerical sex scandals, and the challenge of reforming the Papacy.

In these interviews, Benedict discusses such wide-ranging controversies as:

- The "Vatileaks" case in which his butler leaked some of his personal letters that alleged corruption and scandal in the Vatican
- The presence of a "gay lobby" within the Vatican and how he dismantled it
- His alleged Nazi upbringing
- His attempts at cleaning up the "dirt in the church" (clerical sexual abuse)
- The mysterious private secretary "Gorgeous George"

On a more personal level he writes with great warmth of his successor Pope Francis, who he admits has a popular touch, a star quality which Benedict himself has lacked. Much controversy still surrounds Pope Benedict's Papacy--in this book he addresses these controversies and reveals how at his late age, governing and reforming the Papacy and particularly the Vatican, was beyond him.

Author Biography

Pope Benedict XVI served as pope of the Catholic Church from 2005 to 2013. He was elected pope on April 19, 2005, was inaugurated on April 24, 2005 and resigned from the office on February 28, 2013.