Archbishop Georg Gänswein in an audience with Pope Francis on January 9, 2023. It was the last audience for the German prelate, and there will be no farewell celebration either. Before July 1, Gänswein has to leave the Vatican without an office or assignment.
(Rome) Archbishop Georg Gänswein, officially still Prefect of the Papal Household and former private secretary of Benedict XVI, had been removed from all Vatican posts, as reported by the traditional blog Messa in Latino, citing a "cardinal source".
Pope Benedict XVI, shortly before resigning from office, appointed Msgr. Gänswein as Titular Archbishop of Urbisaglia and Prefect of the Papal Household in 2012. Even after the German Pope withdrew to the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican Gardens, Gänswein accompanied him as private secretary.
It was an open secret in the Vatican that Francis only left him in office him out of consideration for Benedict XVI. Gänswein's dismissal would be viewed by many Catholics as an affront to Benedict XVI. Francis was not interested in alienating the faithful any more than they already did over a personal issue.
At the beginning of 2020, when the post-synodal exhortation on the Amazon Synod was to be used to lay hands on the sacrament of Holy Orders, Francis shied away at the last moment when Cardinal Robert Sarah, together with Benedict XVI. presented a passionate plea for priestly celibacy in book form. Francis raged unmistakably because of the thwarted plans, as reported by informed circles. According to the motto "If you can't beat the master, beat his servant", Gänswein drew all of the Bergoglian lightning bolts. At the same time, Francis suspended Benedict's private secretary from his official post as prefect of the papal household.
"Francis said humiliation would do me good"
As Msgr. Gänswein writes in his memoirs published earlier this year. It has remained so to this day. Gänswein continued to receive his pay for the post, but no longer had a job.
On January 9th, four days after the funeral of Benedict XVI, Francis called Gänswein. Then it was said presumably that the encounter was about Gänswein's future. Several weeks later, rumors circulated that he was being transferred to a Central American country as apostolic nuncio. The statement never had any basis, but it confirmed that Francis had told the German prelate that he no longer had any need for him now that Benedict was dead.
The day before the last audience for Monsignor Gänswein, on January 8th, at the Angelus in St. Peter's Square, Francis had said:
"Let's ask ourselves: am I a person who divides or a person who shares?"
as Msgr. Gänswein writes in his memoirs published earlier this year. It has remained so to this day. Gänswein continued to receive his pay for the post, but no longer had a job.
The statement was obviously not meant to be self-critical, but rather rhetorical.
In the meantime, the rumor had spread, much more plausibly, that Gänswein had to return to his seething homeland without an office or assignment. He would not be the first dignitary for whom Francis no longer has a need. Interestingly, it hits a striking number of Germans, i.e. churchmen of that nation, whose highest exponents, secular and ecclesiastical, rehearse the rebellion against the divine order, especially sub et cum Francis.
Benedict XVI died on December 31, 2022. Shortly thereafter, Francis gave Gänswein six months to pack his bags as mentioned at the audience. The cessation of salary payments fits in with this. In addition, according to Messa in Latino, Gänswein was ordered to vacate his apartment in the Vatican, which he had paid for with his own funds to renovate. A subsequent tenant from Bergoglia will be happy about it. The office of a prefect of the papal house should not be filled under Francis anyway. As it was said some time ago in the papal circle, it works without it, as has been shown since Gänswein's suspension more than three years ago.
Official confirmation of the impeachment and Gänswein's removal from the Vatican, decisions that only Francis himself can make, is not yet available.
[Update: June 15, 2023] No sooner said than done: With today's daily bulletin, the Vatican press office announced that Archbishop Gänswein had already lost his position as head of the Prefecture of the Papal House on February 28th and, as was recently leaked, sent back to his home diocese by Pope Francis. Msgr. Gänswein has to leave the Vatican on July 1st.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: VaticanMedia (screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.Com
AMDG
5 comments:
Ganswein is not a team player. He had to go back to the Black Forest. He'll do well there.
So Pope Francis is just "Bergoglio' to Mr Nardi. You might despise him, Guiseppe, but you should at least be respectful or is that simply a matter of selectivity?
I do not see this as a subversive move.
His patron is no longer on the scene.
The eternal Vatican chess game continues.
His name will pop up next in the first group of men elevated to Cardinal, in the first
Conclave of Francis's successor.
Where is he calling him Bergoglio, Gaybrielle?
Are you afraid that an increasingly large number of people find it hard to believe this man is a legitimate spiritual leader?
He's too orthodox for Pope Francis. People who remind him that the papacy is limited by Apostolic Tradition are too irritating to tolerate. He needs to surround himself with the Fr. James Martin types.
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