Bertone: I Knew of the Resignation since the Summer of 2012

Marinella Bandini of korazym.org had an exclusive interview yesterday with Cardinal Bertone in the Apostolic Palace in which the former Vatican Secretary of State revealed his foreknowledge of Pope Benedict XVI's upcoming 11 February 2013 Papal resignation and the reasons why (e.g. not feeling fit to go to the up-coming World Youth Day in Brazil 2013) and that the Cardinal encouraged Pope Benedict to continue on at least to complete the third book of the Jesus of Nazareth trilogy (Infancy Narratives), which plinthos.blogspot.com has always deemed a rushed job.

Zenit .org  11 Feb. 2013 In a separate 7 February television interview with Tg24com, the Cardinal said that when he last saw the Pope Emeritus (they dined together on Dec. 26) “He was in perfect form, physically and intellectually, always very vivacious, very lucid and always gifted with a formidable memory.”

In regard to his future, Cardinal Bertone said that he is thinking of publishing a book on faith and sport, and also his Memoirs. “I have a very rich archive, so that I can see again, go over again those years with an objective documentation of the events that took place, and give a re-reading which might be useful to put again in their place some interpretations that perhaps, have gone outside the lines.”

Looks like the world can look forward to some posthumous house keeping publication by the Emeritus Pontiff. What a great gift for the Church, the world and for the Emeritus Holy Father to have this post Papal period to sum everything up. Of course, we can expect that his work will be primarily concerned with the primacy of God (true to character) and not Church or world petty politics!