Candid talk from senior cardinal on Pope Francis, Benedict XVI

Cardinal Camillo Ruini thinks Benedict XVI’s resignation was a mistake. Ruini also found himself flummoxed by the Francis pontificate and unsure whether the reign of the late Argentinian pontiff will prove to have done more harm or good.

Ruini said so – in words – in a wide-ranging interview with Italy’s Corriere della sera newspaper that was published late last week.

Ruini, who served the better part of two decades as Pope St. John Paul II’s vicar for the Rome diocese...