Peter Seewald

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Peter Seewald (born July 10, 1954 in Bochum ) is a German journalist and author.

Life

Peter Seewald grew up in Salzweg near Passau in Lower Bavaria in a Catholic family. His originally close religious ties - he was a senior administrator in his home parish - gave way quite early to an attitude critical of the church in the wake of the 1968 movement , during which he became a follower of Marxism and which led to leaving the church in 1973 . In the summer of 1976 he founded the left-liberal weekly newspaper Passauer Kleine Zeitung in Passau , which was discontinued two years later in the spring of 1978.

Seewald was an editor at Spiegel from 1981 to 1987 and a reporter at Stern from 1987 to 1990 . He then switched to the Süddeutsche Zeitung magazine , which he left in 1993. Since then he has been a freelance journalist. After leaving the church, he continued to devote himself to religious issues. From a detailed interview with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1996 he finally produced his book Salt of the Earth , which he edited together with the interviewee and which portrays the future Pope apart from the frequently rumored roles. According to Seewald, this interview was also the occasion for his reconsideration, which ultimately resulted in his re-entry into the Catholic Church.

Afterwards, the author also preferred to devote himself to religious topics. Among his following works there is another with God and the World , which he edited together with Ratzinger. Both joint publications became widely translated bestsellers. Seewald has a good, close relationship with Ratzinger, whom he describes as partly responsible for his conversion. After his election as Pope, he wrote two portraits of him.

In the summer of 2010, Seewald stayed in Castel Gandolfo for a few days to meet with Pope Benedict XVI. prepare a third interview book. Seewald's interview with Pope Benedict XVI. was published at the end of November 2010 under the title Licht der Welt . Statements by the Pope contained therein were interpreted in the reporting as a relativization of a rejection of the use of condoms .

Seewald tries to arouse understanding for the motivation of conservative Catholics. As “[really] progressive” and forward-looking, he advocates a “return to the roots, the original, the core competence, the mission” and opposes what he calls the “cold professorial religion of the 1970s” [sic].

In August 2020, Seewald criticized the weekly newspaper Die Tagespost for what he saw as a "tendentious and reputation-damaging" article about his reporting on the illness of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

Peter Seewald is married and has two sons, Paul and Jakob. He lives in Munich .

Works (selection)

Monte Cassino Monastery , place of origin of the book God and the World , here: Polish Cemetery for Fallen

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Spiegel Online : Pope eases the strict condom ban , November 20, 2010
  2. Die Zeit : Pope Interview - “We'll do it in private” , viewed on November 22, 2010
  3. Interview on kath.net
  4. ^ Controversy about the "daily mail". kath.net from August 12, 2020
  5. http://www.vision2000.at/?nr=2003/2&id=1927
  6. active value: Benedict XVI. Retrieved May 4, 2020 .