Some of Ratzinger’s friends guessed that 1992 was the year he began seriously to consider the idea he would succeed John Paul. In July, the pope, then seventy-two, underwent radical abdominal surgery. A large, benign tumor on his colon was removed, along with his gallbladder, and his surgeons predicted the recovery would be long and painful. That summer, the pope’s health problems prompted major international news organizations, for the first time since the assassination attempt in 1981, to speculate in earnest about his successor.
Over the years, Ratzinger waved away speculation that he might be a candidate for the papacy, although friends knew he was offended when his name was left off the popular lists of those considered papabile. He recognized that some cardinals would strongly oppose his candidacy because of his conservative views, and others would want a younger candidate. He turned sixty-five in 1992 and had his own serious health problems. He suffered a stroke the year before and, as a result, could effectively see out of only one eye. Although he had never admitted it publicly, he had heart surgery years earlier to install a pacemaker. He said he cited his failing health when he asked the pope in 1991 for permission to retire: “I said I can’t do this anymore. His response was ‘no.’ ”
It was at about this time that Ratzinger took steps to soften his public image. His insistence that he ignored his critics had never really been true. He was stung by the insulting nicknames that newspapers continued to apply to him, especially in Germany. “The Panzer-Kardinal nickname really got to him,” said Peter Seewald, a German journalist who became central to Ratzinger’s campaign to polish his image. The cardinal was also alarmed by how often newspaper and magazine profiles noted his boyhood membership in the Hitler Youth and his service in the German army, as if the Nazis had given him any choice.
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