Pope Francis has described his predecessor Benedict XVI as a transitional pope, saying he was the only possible candidate to follow the upheavals under former pope John Paul II. Germany’s Joseph Ratzinger, who became pope Benedict, was the only candidate who could be pontiff at the time when a new pope was elected in 2005, said Francis, the current head of the Catholic Church in an extract from a book due to be published in Spanish on Wednesday. “After the revolution of John Paul II, who was a dynamic, very active pontiff, who took the initiative, who travelled… We needed a pope who could ma…