(5/7/16) Benedetto XVI. Ultime conversazioni is the title of the new interview-book of the Pope Emeritus with the German reporter Peter Seewald, that will be published all over the world on 9th September 2016. Seewald had already collected his dialogues with Joseph Ratzinger in three books (two of them when Ratzinger was a cardinal , in 1996 and 2000, and the last one,Luce del mondo. Il Papa, la Chiesa e i segni dei tempi, when he was the Pope, in 2010).
Luigi Accattoli, who announced the publication of the book in Corriere della Sera newspaper, said that it is about the most important stages of Ratzinger’s life: from his childhood during Nazism to his vocation, the difficult years of the war, the service at the Vatican and his deep friendship with John Paul II. It is also about the papal election, his first days as the successor of Peter and his resignation. Benedict XVI also addresses his successor, Francis – a name that sounded unexpected to him on the eve of the Conclave – and he describes him as a papal and human figure, stressing similarities and differences between Pope Francis and himself.