External links
- Biography of Eberhard von Gemmingen
- Biography on Vatican Radio
- WDR:Get up close and personal at the Pope
- Vatican Radio: Press release for the 70th Birthday with a link to an interview
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German Jesuit Eberhard von Gemmingen (born 4 April 1936) is the head of the editorial board of the German Vatican Radio. [1]
When he was three years old, his parents settled in Württemberg. His mother had been educated by jesuits, while his father later died in the Second World War in 1945 on the Eastern front.
After graduating from high school, he joined the Jesuit Order. He completed his Jesuit studies in philosophy at did academic work in several universities. He was ordained in 1968 by Cardinal Julius Döpfner in Munich . His first major media assignment as a Jesuit was with the German state broadcast network ZDF As of 1982 he was working at Radio Vatican. [2] He knew Pope Benedict XVI [3]
As editorial head of Vatican Radio, he worked on the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI. He had previously studied Tübingen . It was not surprising that he is one of the first exclusive interview with the new Pope. This was also the first personal interview with a pope.
His editorial focuses include the planning of the overall program, particularly the radio academies, radio retreats, Sunday reflections and the weekly commentaries. [4] [5]
Von Gemmingen has advocated dissident views within the Church. For instance, he suggested that women be named to the rank of Cardinal. [6] He also criticized Pope Benedict's handling of the Richard Williamson affair and suggested that the pontiff might resign. [7]
After a heart attack in 2007, he worked with German visitors of Vatican Radio and later withdrew in Germany.
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Pope Benedict XVI was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as pope occurred in the 2005 papal conclave that followed the death of Pope John Paul II. Benedict chose to be known as "Pope emeritus" upon his resignation, and he retained this title until his death in 2022.
Christoph Maria Michael Hugo Damian Peter Adalbert Schönborn, O.P. is a Bohemian-born Austrian Dominican friar, theologian and philosopher, who is a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He serves as the Archbishop of Vienna and was the Chairman of the Austrian Bishops' Conference from 1998 to 2020. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1998. He is also Grand Chaplain of the Order of the Golden Fleece, of which he has been a member since 1961. He is a member of the formerly sovereign House of Schönborn, several members of which held high offices of the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic Church as prince-bishops, prince-electors and cardinals.
Pope Francis is the Pope and head of the Catholic Church, the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State. He is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the first from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, and the first born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century papacy of the Syrian Pope Gregory III.
Tarcisio Pietro Evasio Bertone is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church and a Vatican diplomat. A cardinal since 2003, he served as Archbishop of Vercelli from 1991 to 1995, as Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop of Genoa from 2002 to 2006, and as Cardinal Secretary of State from 2006 to 2013. On 10 May 2008, he was named Cardinal-Bishop of Frascati.
Georg Ratzinger PA was a German Catholic priest and musician, known for his work as the conductor of the Regensburger Domspatzen, the cathedral choir of Regensburg. He was the elder brother of Pope Benedict XVI. Their grand-uncle was the German politician Georg Ratzinger.
Julián Herranz Casado is a Spanish cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as President of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts in the Roman Curia from 1994 to 2007, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 2003 by Pope John Paul II.
Georg Gänswein is a German prelate of the Catholic Church who was named Apostolic Nuncio to Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia on 24 June 2024. He served as Prefect of the Papal Household from 2012 to 2023 and was the Personal Secretary of Pope Benedict XVI. He was a Professor of Canon Law at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross for about a decade and has been an archbishop since 2012. He is also an Honorary Canon of Freiburg Cathedral.
The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei was a commission of the Catholic Church established by Pope John Paul II's motu proprioEcclesia Dei of 2 July 1988 for the care of those former followers of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre who broke with him as a result of his consecration of four priests of his Society of St. Pius X as bishops on 30 June 1988, an act that the Holy See deemed illicit and a schismatic act. It was also tasked with trying to return to full communion with the Holy See those traditionalist Catholics who are in a state of separation, of whom the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) is foremost, and of helping to satisfy just aspirations of people unconnected with these groups who want to keep alive the pre-1970 Roman Rite liturgy.
Carlo Maria Martini was an Italian Jesuit, cardinal of the Catholic Church and a Biblical scholar. He was Archbishop of Milan from 1980 to 2004 and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1983. A towering intellectual figure of the Roman Catholic Church, Martini was the liberal contender for the Papacy in the 2005 conclave, following the death of Pope John Paul II. According to highly placed Vatican sources, Martini received more votes in the first round than Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the conservative candidate: 40 to 38. Ratzinger ended up with more votes in subsequent rounds and was elected Pope Benedict XVI.
Joseph Ratzinger (1927–2022) was named by Pope John Paul II on 25 November 1981 as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) formerly known as the Holy Office and, especially around the 16th century, as the Roman Inquisition.
During his papal tenure, Pope Benedict XVI focused on building on the outreach of his predecessors towards Islam, particularly on the efforts of Pope John Paul II, who experts say established trust and opened opportunities for dialogue with Muslims. One of the important milestones in the Pope's efforts included a religious and peaceful initiative called A Common Word. This was provoked by an ill-conceived 2006 lecture he delivered at a university in Regensburg, Germany, which prompted Muslim leaders to gather and make overtures to their Christian and Jewish counterparts. Later on, Pope Benedict pursued key initiatives that helped foster Christian and Muslim dialogue. These were founded on the Pope's belief that Christians and Muslims have shared religious experience and that Christianity and Islam are both theologically founded in "God's irruptive call ... heard in the midst of man's ordinary daily existence."
Federico Lombardi is an Italian Catholic priest and the former director of the Holy See Press Office. He succeeded Joaquín Navarro-Valls and was succeeded by Greg Burke.
Gerhard Ludwig Müller is a German cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as the Cardinal-Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) from his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 until 2017. Pope Francis elevated him to the rank of cardinal in 2014.
Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle is a Filipino prelate of the Catholic Church currently serving as the Pro-Prefect for the Section of Evangelization of Dicastery for Evangelization since June 5, 2022, and as the President of Interdicasterial Commission for Consecrated Religious since December 8, 2019. He was the 32nd Archbishop of Manila from 2011 to 2020. Tagle is the Cardinal-Bishop of San Felice da Cantalice a Centocelle and also serves as the President of the Catholic Biblical Federation, Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Urbaniana University, and as a member of various departments and dicasteries in the Roman Curia.
His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI is a book published by the Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi of confidential letters and memos between Pope Benedict XVI and his personal secretary. The letters in the book portray the Vatican as a corrupt hotbed of jealousy, intrigue and underhanded factional fighting.
The Vatican leaks scandal, also known as Vati-Leaks, is a scandal beginning in 2012 initially involving leaked Vatican documents, exposing corruption; in addition, an internal Vatican investigation has purportedly uncovered the blackmailing of homosexual clergy by individuals outside the Church. Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi published letters from Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò in which he exposed corruption that caused the Holy See to pay increased prices for contracts.
A conclave was convened on 12 March 2013 to elect a pope to succeed Benedict XVI, who had resigned on 28 February. 115 participating cardinal-electors gathered. On the fifth ballot, the conclave elected Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, SJ, Archbishop of Buenos Aires. He took the pontifical name Francis.
The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI took effect on 28 February 2013 at 20:00 CET, following his announcement of it on 11 February. It made him the first pope to relinquish the office since Gregory XII was forced to resign in 1415 to end the Western Schism, and the first pope to voluntarily resign since Celestine V in 1294.
On 31 December 2022, at 09:34 Central European Time (UTC+1), former Pope Benedict XVI died at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in Vatican City at the age of 95. He had been pope emeritus since his resignation as the leader of the Catholic Church in 2013 due to declining health. His death ended a nine-year period during which an incumbent pope and a retired pope both lived within Vatican City.
