Catholic Church
Pope transfers Gänswein to Freiburg without office
Returns to his home diocese of Freiburg: Georg Gänswein. photo
© Peter Kneffel/dpa
Georg Gänswein was at Pope Benedict’s side for a long time – and in Rome for almost three decades. Now he has to return to his homeland, to Freiburg. For the time being, he will not hold any important office there.
The former private secretary of Pope Benedict XVI, Georg Gänswein, has to leave the Vatican after almost three decades. By order of today’s Pope Francis, the 66-year-old German will return to his home diocese of Freiburg on July 1, as the Holy See announced in Rome. However, the longtime confidant of the former Pope, who died six months ago, will not initially be given a new important office.
The Holy See has now announced that Gänswein has not officially been the prefect of the papal house since February 28th. The archbishop had held this top post close to the pontiff since the end of 2012. About three years ago, however, he was given a permanent leave of absence by Francis. The Italian Leonardo Sapienza, who has already taken over Gänswein’s tasks – such as organizing audiences and non-liturgical celebrations – is likely to be his successor.
Gänswein now has to vacate his official apartment next to St. Peter’s, which he recently moved into. The Archdiocese of Freiburg announced that its possible new tasks were reserved for “future considerations”. The move is planned for the first week of July. After that, Gänswein will live in Freiburg, near his birthplace in Riedern am Wald in the Black Forest.
Since 2003 assistant to Joseph Ratzinger
Gänswein had studied theology in Freiburg. He was ordained a priest there in 1984. With around 1.8 million Catholics, the Archdiocese is one of the largest of the 27 dioceses in Germany. It is led by Archbishop Stephan Burger (61) – who will now be confronted with the unusual situation of having a second archbishop with him in the parish. In Rome, Gänswein no longer had a future under Francis, that had seemed clear for months. At the beginning of June, the daily newspaper “Welt” reported on his return home.
The minister was called to the Vatican in 1995, where he joined the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith a year later within the Curia. Joseph Ratzinger was prefect there and made Gänswein his assistant in 2003. After the Bavarian cardinal was elected pope, Gänswein followed him to the Apostolic Palace and became private secretary. On the instructions of his successor Francis, Gänswein took care of the emeritus pontiff until his death on New Year’s Eve 2022.
Gänswein caused outrage in the Vatican with a book
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 in interviews, for example, caused a lack of understanding and outrage in the Vatican.
In the book, he also quoted from private conversations with Francis and expressed disappointment with some of the Argentine’s decisions. This in turn made his displeasure known with subtle remarks. After Benedict’s funeral, Francis and Gänswein met for three official audiences. There was speculation about transfers to Costa Rica, for example as nuncio – ie Vatican ambassador – or as archbishop to Bamberg. However, these scenarios were extremely unlikely. Gänswein himself has not yet commented on the transfer.