Pope wanted to be Vatican librarian

VATICAN CITY, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI asked his predecessor, Paul II" class="tpstyle">John Paul II, to allow him to become the Vatican's librarian, but his request was denied, a Vatican official said.

Cardinal Raffaela Farina said the late pope refused 13 years ago to allow then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was the prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican, to step down from his position to be the archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives and a librarian of the Vatican Library, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported Thursday.

Ratzinger, 83, was John Paul II's doctrinal enforcer, but he considered his job "burdensome" and wished to retire to study ancient documents for the remainder of this life, the Daily Telegraph said.

"He was asking me what I thought of his idea and what being archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church involved. When I realized what the Pope-to-be really meant … I expressed clearly how happy I and the whole staff of the library were to have him join us," said Farina.

If John Paul II had granted the request, Pope Benedict XVI probably would not have become pope, the newspaper said.