Interview with Papa's former close collaborator Part I
Most of it isn't probably new for you, but it contains some sweet details. This is my rather poor translation of an interview with Bp. Zygmunt Zimowski of Diocese of Radom, Poland, published in Gosc Niedzielny 2006-05-04:
Bp Zygmunt Zimowski – Bishop of Radom, who worked for 19 years with card. Joseph Ratzinger in the CDF.
Fr. Marek Gancarczyk, Marcin Jakimowicz: Your Excellence is probably the only Pole, who knows Benedict XVI so well. For how long have you worked together in the CDF?
Bp Zygmunt Zimowski: - Nineteen years, three months and fifteen days. So Vatican calculated for my retirement pension, which I will receive after my 75. birthday. I hope I will live long enough (laughs)
When did you meet for the first time?
Autumn 1975. The bishop of Innsbruck celebrated 30 anniversary of his episcopal ordination and invited card. Ratzinger, then archbishop of Munich, to deliver the homily. I remembered his gestures, I recall how his homily flowed. People have been listening to him with their mouth open. I noticed then that Joseph Ratzinger is not only a theologian, but a pastor as well. I saw is humility. And this first impression will stay with me forever.
After the Mass I approached him and said: “I am from Poland, I am studying here” And he smiled: “Good, it’s a good thing to study!” I have never imagined that I will become one of his closest collaborators. Since 1983 I have worked in the CDF. There is a proverb which says: “The lot fell upon Matthias”. At first I declined, saying that I didn’t studied in Rome, That the Roman Curia is unknown to me, but archbishop Ablewicz smiled: “That even better that there is no load (of past)” After that there was the ordinary, daily work by the side of the great man. Members of the Congregation always thought of Ratzinger as of a great man of the Church. We were fascinated by his simplicity, kindness, openness.
This contradicts the media image: the panzer, reserved cardinal Ratzinger would miraculously be transformed into smiling Benedict XVI?
Yes, I read those opinions. This is a big misunderstanding. The cardinal has always been a smiling, joyful, gentle man. He was shy, but when he finally got closer to somebody, overcome this first barrier, then he committed himself- as one of our blessed used to say: “to the ruins” (laugh). Was he a panzer cardinal? Yes, when it came to faith. St. Paul writes that we should wear an armour of faith. He was also firm, decisive, because during those 23 years as Prefect he had to decide in matters of faith and morality. But he always was by the side of John Paul II. I noticed that media being afraid to attack directly the Pope, very often attacked cardinal Ratzinger.
Was he bothered by all this?
The more critics he got, the more calm he was. Paradoxically. He is a man of prayer. All the time he underlined, that this is truth, fullness of faith which matters.
Which documents made the critics furious?
For instance the two univocal documents about the liberation theology and “Dominus Iesus” from year 2000. I recall, that I ate dinner with John Paul II. I was alone. Bishop Dziwisz had travelled somewhere. The Holy Father has been telling me about those documents. He said that the liberation theology has only the horizontal dimension, it lacks reference to God. He added: “I know, why the communists hate me so much” He unbuttoned three buttons of his white cassock and smiled: “Because I know them from the lining”
And “Dominus Iesus”? The media has often written, that it was a document written in opposition to John Paul II…
Nothing of the kind! The Pope really waited for this document. He dedicated it a couple of his Angelus meditations. Some people stubbornly wanted to prove that cardinal Ratzinger tried to push this document. Yet every document of the CDF has something like credo, it is ratified by pope. The media wanted to conflict cardinal Ratzinger with the Pope. But I still see them together. I was always a common path. Besides in the interview that Benedict XVI granted the Polish Television (thing without any precedent!), he said: “I still feel presence of the Pope, man who went to the Lord, but he isn’t distant…” They were always close to each other. By the occasion of “Dominus Iesus”, some wanted to conflict also two German cardinals: Joseph Ratzinger and Walter Kasper, responsible for christians’ unity. But they didn’t succeed.