Recent reports claiming that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI resigned because God told him to during a mystical experience was an invention, says his long-time secretary.

The Catholic News Service (CNS) is reporting that Archbishop Georg Ganswein, the former pope’s personal secretary, said the story about the pope resigning after a mystical experience was a complete invention.

“It was invented from alpha to omega,” the archbishop said Aug. 24 in an interview on Italy’s Canale 5 television news. “There is nothing true in the article.”

The story about the mystical experience originated in an August 19 article published by Zenit, a Catholic news service, after interviewing an unnamed source who claimed to have visited the pope recently where he questioned him about his decision to retire. According to the source, Benedict said that “God told me to” and went on to clarify that it wasn’t through an apparition but rather a “mystical experience” in which the Lord filled him with an “absolute desire” to be alone with Him in prayer.

CNS reports that the story came as a surprise to some Vatican officials and Vatican watchers who believed the former pontiff made his decision only after long and careful thought and deep prayer.

Officially, Benedict told the world on February 11, 2013 that: “After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.”

Since stepping down on February 28, the Pope has been leading a quiet life of prayer and is now residing in a remodeled monastery in the Vatican Gardens along with Archbishop Ganswein and four consecrated laywomen. He does receive visitors on occasion, usually personal friends or former students, but these meetings are private and rarely publicized.

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