Prevost's secret and unpublished letter to Benedict XVI on the day of his resignation: "Thank you for your courage."

On the 99th anniversary of his birth, the 2013 letter resurfaces: "Determined to confront abuses in the Church."

Seeing a Pope under attack, as he has these days, has brought back to mind for those with a good memory the constant criticism leveled at Benedict XVI during his pontificate. Among the often unfair and sometimes slanderous accusations leveled against Ratzinger was even that of having covered up for a pedophile priest in Germany. A lie that was revived even a few months before his death, causing the now elderly and frail Pope Emeritus profound pain. In reality, Benedict XVI—whose ninety-ninth anniversary of birth is celebrated today with a Mass in St. Peter's presided over by Cardinal Kurt Koch—was the Pope who did the most to combat the scourge of abuse in the Church. This recognition was bestowed upon him by his future successor, Robert Prevost, in a letter dated February 22, 2013, which remained unknown to the general public.

The day after the news of his resignation from the papacy, the then-superior of the Augustinians took pen to paper to express "gratitude, loyalty, admiration, and support" to the theologian Pope "for all he has done for the Church during the years of his service and for the great courage he demonstrated in making the decision to resign from the Petrine ministry." The future Leo XIV praised his predecessor for "his clear teaching and promotion of the faith to the point of seeking the truth," as well as for his "vision of the Church" and "efforts to promote its unity." Rereading these words today, they sound like a foreshadowing of the current pontificate's guidelines. But the most significant passage is undoubtedly the one on the issue of abuse. Prevost expressed his gratitude to Benedict for his "constant guidance on the tragic and painful issue of sexual abuse," considering it "another very important contribution" of his pontificate and acknowledging his "determination in addressing it." The then-superior of the Augustinians praised "the exemplary pastoral sense and humility that led Your Holiness to ask forgiveness from the victims," ​​maintaining that "your action has benefited the members of the Church, not to mention what has been done for others outside the Church who always watch carefully how we are capable of responding to such a painful and complex topic." These informal words reveal Leo XIV's great esteem for the German Pope and his internal cleansing efforts to protect minors, which embodied the denunciation he made as a cardinal during the 2005 Via Crucis against the "filth in the Church."

In his letter, Prevost mentioned the "love for St. Augustine," expressed so frequently during Ratzinger's pontificate, and also the concern he showed for his order with the creation of his fellow friar Prosper Grech as cardinal, the first Augustinian in the Sacred College after 111 years. Speaking to Il Giornale, Benedict XVI's longtime secretary, Monsignor Georg Gänswein, described it as a letter written "from the heart," explaining that the two Popes are "both Augustinians and speak the same language." According to the current nuncio to Lithuania, St. Augustine was "the guiding star" in Ratzinger's life and they had "common biographies: the saint from Hippo wanted to be only a theologian but had to become a bishop, just as Benedict didn't want to be Pope but had to be." Gänswein revealed to Il Giornale that Ratzinger was already impressed by the future Leo XIV in 1917. 2007, during a visit to the tomb of Saint Augustine in the Basilica of Saint Peter in Ciel d'Oro in Pavia. "The then Father Prevost," Gänswein recounted, "gave a greeting, and Benedict later commented, telling me it was beautiful."

Father Francesco Maria Giuliani, an Augustinian friar and longtime friend of Prevost's who was present in Pavia that day, recalled to Il Giornale that in the basilica, a fellow friar jokingly "rebuked" the Pope, telling him he should have been called Augustine I and not Benedict XVI. A joke that made both Ratzinger and Prevost burst out laughing. Father Giuliani never forgot the moment when he thanked the German Pope for the great good he had done for the figure of Saint Augustine: "He promptly replied: 'It's he who has done good for me.'

Source