Light of the World: Being Pope

From Light of the World:

What does a Pope do in his free time, assuming he has any at all?
Yes, what does he do? Of course even in his free time he must study and read documents. There is always a great deal of work left over. But with the papal family, with the four women from the Memores Domini community and the two secretaries, there are meals in common, too; those are moments of relaxation.

Do you watch television together?
I watch the news with the secretaries, but sometimes we watch a DVD together as a group.

What films do you like?
There is a very beautiful film about St Josephine Bakhita, an African woman, which we watched recently. And then we like to watch Don Camillo and Peppone.

By now you probably know the whole series by heart.
(Laughter.) Not quite.

So there are people who share in the Pope's private life, too.
Of course. We celebrate Christmas together, listen to holiday music, and exchange gifts. The feast days of our patron saints are celebrated, and occasionally we also sing Evening Prayer together. So we celebrate feasts together. And then, besides our common meals, there is above Holy Mass in common in the morning. That is an especially important moment in which we are all with each other in a particularly intense way in the light of the Lord.
 
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The Romans were a little taken aback when they say on the moving van the belongings with which you moved out of your residence into the Vatican after being elected the 264th successor of Peter. Did you furnish the papal appartments with your used furniture?
My study at least. It was important for me to have my study the way it has developed over the course of many decades. Gradually In 1954 I bought my desk and the first bookshelves. Gradually there were additions. In them are all my advisers, the books; I know every nook and cranny, and everything has its history. Therefore I brought the whole study along with me. The other rooms were set up with the papal furniture.

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A Pope does not even have his own briefcase, much less a salary. Is that right?
Yes, that is right.

Does he then at least get more help and consolation "from above" then, let's say the average mortal?
Not only from above. I get so many letters from simple people, from religious sisters, from mothers, fathers, children, in which they encourage me. They write, "We pray for you, be not afraid, we like you." And they even enclose gifts of money and other little gifts...

The Pope receives monetary gifts?
Not for me personally, but so that I can help others with it. And I also find it very moving that simple people enclose something and tell me, "I know that you have to help so much, and I want to do a little, too." In this respect there are all kinds of consolations. And then they are the Wednesday audiences with the individual meetings. Letters arrive from old friends, occasionally visits, too, although of course that has become increasingly difficult. Since I always sense consolation "from above" as well and experience the nearness of the Lord while praying, and the beauty of the faith shines forth as I read the Church Fathers, there is a whole concert of consolations.

Has your faith changed since you have become responsible for Christ's flock as the supreme shepherd? Sometimes people get the impression that now it has become more mysterious somehow, more mystical.
I am no mystic. But it is correct that as Pope one has even more cause to pray and to entrust oneself entirely to God. For I see very well that almost everything I have to do is something I myself cannot do at all. That fact already forces me, so to speak, to place myself in the Lord's hands and to say to him: "You do it, if you want it!"  In this sense prayer and contact with God are now even more necessary and also more natural and evident than before.

To put it in worldly terms: Is there now a "better connection" to heaven, or something like a grace of office?
Yes, one often feels that. In the sense of: Now I have been able to do something that did not come from me at all. Now I entrust myself to the Lord and notice, yes, there is help there, something is being done that is not my own doing. In that sense there is absolutely an experience of the grace of office.

John Paul II once recounted that one day his father put a prayerbook with the "Prayer to the Holy Spirit" into his hands and told him that he should pray it daily. He then gradually understood what it means when Jesus says that the true worshippers of God are those who worship him "in spirit and truth". What does that mean?
This passage in chapter 4 of John's Gospel is the prophecy of a worship in which there will no longer be any temple, but in which the faithful will pray without an external temple in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and the truth of the Gospel, in communion with Christ; where what is needed is no longer a visible temple but rather the new fellowship with the risen Lord. That always remains important, because it signifies a major turning point in the history of religion as well.

And how does Pope Benedict pray?
As far as the Pope is concerned, he too is a simple beggar before God - even more than all other people. Naturally I always pray first and foremost to our Lord, with whom I am united simply by old acquaintance, so to speak. But I also invoke the saints. I am friends with Augustine, with Bonaventure, with Thomas Aquinas. Then one says to such saints also: Help me! And the Mother of God is, in any case, always a major point of reference. In this sense, I commend myself to the communion of saints. With them, strengthened by them, I then talk with the dear Lord also, begging, for the most part, but also in thanksgiving - or quite simply being joyful.