Pope Benedict passed box of Vatican’s ‘most difficult and painful’ secrets over to Pope Francis: Book

Television is not one of those things. He said he stopped watching TV in 1990 after seeing “a sordid scene,” which he does not describe, when it was broadcast. At that moment he made a vow to the Virgin of Carmen to never to watch TV again, although he says he couldn’t help but watch the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center as they unfolded on 9/11.

“I have continued along his path,” writes Francis.

He made the point of phoning his newsagent in Buenos Aires to let him know he wouldn’t be needing his papers delivered following the March, 2013 conclave when he was elected pope. He has already dictated how his funeral will go. No catafalque (an ornate platform to place a coffin on), he said.

Carlo Musso, an Italian editorial executive, spent the last six years working with Pope Francis on the book, according to an afterword.

Francis only cites Benedict in a few passages in his more than 300-page autobiography, Francis, 88, fiercely defends his predecessor, calling him “a father and brother to me.

“With shame and repentance, the Church must seek pardon for the terrible damage that those clergy have caused with their sexual abuse of children.”

“Our relationship was always genuine and deep, regardless of a few tales that were made up by those determined to tell the opposite story,” writes Francis.

In “Hope,” the leader of more than a billion Catholics around the world describes his joy when he received his religious calling for the priesthood at his neighborhood church in 1953 when he was 17-years-old. His mother was initially disappointed, and tried to convince him to become a doctor, he writes.

“I can still smell the aroma of pizza,” he writes. “To tell the truth, going out for pizza is one of the small things that I most miss.”

“From the very start of my papacy in 2013, I felt I was being called to take responsibility for all the evil committed by certain priests, who were many in number,” he continued.

As pope, Francis eschewed the trappings of grandeur. He refused to stay in the papal apartment and lives modestly in the Santa Marta guesthouse near St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Since becoming pope Francis has actively fought corruption, passing laws in 2021 that all bishops and cardinals will be tried if they are suspected of criminal behavior as well as promoting financial transparency, including barring employees of the Vatican from receiving gifts worth more than $45.

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