In El Sucesor (“The Successor”), a book-interview with Spanish Vaticanist Javier Martínez-Brocal published in Spanish on April 3, Pope Francis explains that he met Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on several occasions when he himself was called to Rome as a bishop and then as a cardinal, notably during the 1994 Synod on Consecrated Life and the 2001 Synod on Episcopal Collegiality, for which he was Assistant General Relator.
He recounts an endearing anecdote about Cardinal Ratzinger, whom he sometimes met in St. Peter’s Square. “I remember him in this neighborhood, walking towards his house wearing a beret and surrounded by cats. I think he knew the language of cats, it was impressive. He spoke to them, and they understood him and guided him,” recalls Francis.
Benedict XVI’s love of cats is well known. Archbishop Alfred Xuereb, who was assistant private secretary to the German pontiff secretariat from 2007 to 2013, recounted several interesting anecdotes about the German pope’s passion for felines in his memoir My days with Benedict XVI, published in 2023.
In it, he recalls the publication in 2007 of Joseph and Chico: The Life of Pope Benedict XVI as Told By a Cat, a children’s book written by journalist Jeanne Perego, retracing the life of the German pope through the eyes of his faithful ginger cat.
While we were at table, the pope spoke to us about the pleasant meetings he has had with the author of this book for children, and he revealed to us that, when he was cardinal, he thought of writing a book on cats once he retired. It was a dream that obviously has remained in the drawer. He commented, ‘The irony of fate: Instead of me speaking about cats, it is the neighbor’s cat that speaks about me!’ We had a great laugh.
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