Thursday, August 5, 2010

Pope Benedict wanted to be a librarian

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Pope Benedict XVI wanted to become a librarian 13 years ago but his request to quit the Vatican high office was rejected. 

By Simon Caldwell 

His predecessor, Pope John Paul II, declined his request to spend his last years as the archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives and as a librarian of the Vatican Library, according to the incumbent librarian and archivist Cardinal Raffaele Farina..

At the time the future Pope Benedict was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pope’s doctrinal enforcer.

But he found his job “burdensome” and wanted to retire to academic study of ancient documents for the rest of his life.

He asked the Pope if he could step down from his role when he turned 70 on April 16, 1997, a move which would have permanently removed him from Vatican politics and from the eyes of the world...

4 comments:

belinda said...

I doubt that would'a been a regular "Joe-schmo" librian job but rather a job for someone who would have supplied texts, books and documents for cannon lawyers , teachers, professors, and highly educated priests.

He would have had people calling and coming in for validation about some paragraph that saint so and so said about his mother (or whatever) in the year 0003 and did that come in a paper back edition??

What a nightmare job. I can't even find the remote control to the TV 80% of the time- I'm serious.

Rachel said...

What we need are politicians who don't want their jobs. The ones that want to be in politics are usually bad news.

Vincenzo said...

Exactly Rachel. Once again you show the world how amazing you are. (/me angling for cookies.) I think I recall an ancient interview where John Wayne praised Reagan for hiring people who didn't want their jobs when he was gov. of California. Instead of growing bureaucracies and increasing government (and their own) power, they trimmed the fat, saved money and solved problems.

X said...

Thank God JPII said NO! and the Holy Spirit said YES!