Throughout the history of literature, there have been various individuals who have provided us with insights into historical events or threw light on public personalities through the writing of a diary.
Ann Frank’s renowned Diary is a case in point. Being both autobiographical and personal, a diary may serve more than one purpose as well as proving to be a literary feat, depending on the literary capabilities of the person who writes it.
Mgr Alfred Xuereb’s My Days with Benedict XVI is a diary covering the main part of the pontificate of the late Pope Benedict XVI, stretching the period beginning on September 11, 2007, to March 15, 2013. For the reader to appreciate the diary better and get the utmost out of it, it is vital to know that Xuereb served the late German pontiff in the capacity of a particular secretary between the two dates quoted above.
He was eventually consecrated Archbishop by Pope Francis on March 19, 2018, after being nominated apostolic nuncio for Korea and Mongolia on February 26 of the same year.
The president of the Joseph Ratzinger Foundation, Jesuit priest Fr Federico Lombardi, who penned the presentation of the book, described it thus: “It is a particular diary, emotionally intense, in which the little daily things are more significant than the big ones. It is a contribution from which emerges an altogether true, precise and genuine image of the man Joseph Ratzinger and of Pope Benedict XVI.”
It is a particular diary, emotionally intense, in which the little daily things are more significant than the big ones
As Aldo Maria Valli eminently wrote in the foreword of the book, by writing this diary, which he refers to a testimony, Mgr Xuereb did not try to present us with an objective descriptive biography of the Bavarian pope; rather, he is merely trying to tell us: “This is it, this is the man whom I had the privilege to come to know!”
Diaries can be tricky documents since, by their very nature, they depict historical events and decipher persons from a subjective perspective; they reflect the writer’s background, biases, agenda and beliefs.
However, they do bring with them a personal touch and they catch the ‘hic and nunc’ of a situation in a way only photographs can rival. Xuereb’s opus is a document of singular significance.
The late pope Benedict XVI appears at the window of St Peter’s Basilica’s main balcony after being elected pope. File Photo: Patrick Hertzog/AFPThe relationship between the writer and the protagonist is clearly similar to the one between a father and a son. Xuereb is neither critical nor analytic in his work, but this is not to say that it is not original. It may be criticised for being impartial, but that is to be expected.
The diary aims to show us Ratzinger in his humanity, a humanity that radiates with humility and service, two timeless values that contemporary cultures seem to have put aside! Xuereb is one of handful of people who lived next to Ratzinger in the last and perhaps most significant decades of his life; his diary is a clear reflection of such an important timeslot in the life of the entire Church.
Originally published in Italian by Edizioni San Paolo on January 31 of this year, this precious piece of history about Pope Benedict XVI is now available as an illustrated edition also in English.