After almost three decades and a long time at Pope Benedict’s side, Georg Gänswein is leaving the Vatican. The Holy See confirms the Archbishop’s return to Germany. There he initially did not receive any important office – Freiburg got an unusual situation.
Pope Benedict XVI’s longtime private secretary, Georg Gänswein, has lost his top post in the Vatican. The 66-year-old returns to his home diocese of Freiburg – initially without an important office. The Holy See pointed out on Thursday that Gänswein’s term of office had already expired on February 28. Pope Francis has now decreed that the Archbishop must go to Freiburg on July 1st.
The German had already been given a permanent leave of absence by Pope Francis as a prefect in 2020. He no longer has an official position in the Vatican. Gänswein has to vacate his official apartment next to St. Peter’s Basilica and returns to Germany after almost three decades at the Curia. For many years, Gänswein was the private secretary and confidante of the German Pope Benedict VXI. and took care of the emeritus pontiff until his death on New Year’s Eve 2022.
The relationship between Pope Francis and Gänswein is considered burdened
The relationship between today’s Pope and Gänswein has been strained for many years because Benedict, after his resignation, often spoke up on church-political questions and criticized the course of his successor. Observers suspected Gänswein’s influence behind this, which he rejected. The fact that the German published a book about Benedict shortly after Benedict’s death and aggressively promoted it caused incomprehension and outrage in the Vatican. In the book he also describes private conversations with Francis.
According to reports, the current pope made it clear to the archbishop that he had to leave the Vatican and suggested that he return to Germany. An unusual situation now arises in Freiburg with two archbishops: Stephan Burger as head of the archdiocese and Gänswein as a returnee from Rome.
Source: Stern
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