„He was like a father to me“

He was the late Pope’s closest confidant: Archbishop Georg Gänswein. He served Joseph Ratzinger as private secretary since his days as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. After his election to the papacy, Benedict XVI kept Gänswein as his private secretary. No other person had such a close-up view of Benedict’s pontificate. Gänswein remained at the side of the now deceased pontiff until the very end. In an interview for this Internet portal, Gänswein looks back on Benedict XVI’s time in office and talks about the years following his resignation from the Petrine Office. The interview in Rome was conducted by Guido Horst, chief editor of the Catholic newspaper Die Tagespost.