Benedict XVI rebuked a cardinal who criticised his decision to resign and take the title Pope Emeritus, leaked letters reveal.
In the letters – which were leaked to the German newspaper Bild, who then passed them to the New York Times – Benedict says he can understand the “deep-seated pain” his resignation caused. However, people’s anger at his decision is devaluing his entire pontificate, leading to it being “conflated with the sadness about the situation of the Church today.”
The New York Times says that the letters were addressed to Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, one of the four ‘dubia’ cardinals, who had recently criticised Benedict’s resignation in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
