Archbishop Georg Gänswein is Seeking Employment in Freiburg

Archbishop Georg Gänswein has offered to help out in the Archdiocese of Freiburg where he is needed.  "I'm here now, I'm looking for a job, so to speak," said the Archbishop, according to the German Press Agency (dpa) on Thursday evening at a book launch in Kirchzarten.  In conversation with the publisher Manuel Herder, the word "job center" was also mentioned.

Gänswein has been living in his home Archdiocese of Freiburg since the beginning of July.  After the death of Benedict XVI, Pope Francis  decrees that the 66-year-old former private secretary of Benedict returns to his home diocese.  The Archdiocese of Freiburg announced in July after a meeting between Freiburg's chief shepherd, Stephan Burger, and Gänswein that the former papal secretary would lead services in Freiburg's cathedral from the fall.  However, he did not get another, permanent job in the Archdiocese.

Gänswein comes from the Black Forest and worked for Pope Benedict XVI for many years.  Since 2013 he has also been Prefect of the Papal Household under Francis.  Francis gave Gänswein leave of absence in 2020. Most recently, Gänswein's book "Nothing but the Truth" made international headlines and discussions because it contains details of the lines of conflict between Pope Francis and his predecessor.  (ben)

Bishop without people and land - what are titular bishops allowed to do?

Archbishop Gänswein's legal position is not entirely clear

Two archbishops live in Freiburg: diocesan bishop Burger and titular bishop Gänswein, who used to be a priest of the diocese.  However, its legal status has not yet been clarified.  In an interview, canon law expert Georg Bier explains how canon law deals with titular bishops.

Actually every priest belongs to a diocese, an order or a similar association.  But in the case of bishops, canon law remains imprecise: does that also apply to them?  And what about bishops who do not preside over a diocese?  After Pope Francis sent Archbishop Georg Gänswein back to his home archbishopric of Freiburg, this question arose for him and for the diocese.  The Freiburg canonist Georg Bier sees various ways of dealing with the canonical ambiguity - but always with the same practical result.  For him, the more important question is another: why are there titular bishops?

Question: According to canon law, every cleric must be incardinated in a diocese or other association.  What does that mean and why is that?

Beer: For every cleric there is a spiritual home association and in particular a responsible superior.  The ecclesiastical legislature does not want there to be clerics who roam freely in the world, unattached to any incardination union or superior, without anyone taking responsibility and supervision over them.  The incardination superior is usually the diocesan bishop, in the case of religious the religious superior.

Question: Canon law formulates this rule in c.  265 CIC unequivocally and sweepingly: "Every cleric must be incardinated", cleric without incardination "must not exist in any way".  Does this also apply to bishops?

Bier: That is actually a question that has not been clearly clarified.  There is room here for various canonical positions.  One position is that bishops are not among those "clerics" referred to by c.  265.  Others hold that bishops no longer have incardination when they are consecrated.  But they are not completely free-floating: they are incorporated into the college of bishops and have the pope as their superior.  The position that bishops belong to the incardination association that they head is likely to be held by the majority.  The word "incardination" contains "cardo", the door hinge: the upper incardination is to a certain extent the hinge on which a door is hung.  This makes him part of the incardination association, but in a special way.

 

Portrait photo of Georg Bier

 Image: ©Private (archive image)

Georg Bier has been Professor of Canon Law and Church Legal History at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Freiburg since 2004.  In his habilitation thesis he dealt with the legal status of the diocesan bishop according to the 1983 Codex Iuris Canonici.

Question: In the case of titular bishops, however, one does not seem to get very far with this: A titular diocese is not an incardination association.

Bier: Yes, a titular bishop is a bishop without a people and without a country.  A titular diocese would then be an incardination association with only one member who is also "cardo".  This is an absurd consequence;  it points to theological problems: the legal figure of the titular bishop is theologically not uncontroversial and is viewed critically.  When the Second Vatican Council spoke of bishops, it actually always had diocesan bishops in mind, i.e. heads of particular churches.  The titular dioceses go back to this: These are dioceses that have actually existed and whose bishops had to flee during the ancient persecution of Christians.  At that time it was not yet permissible for a diocesan bishop to change his diocese, so the expelled bishops remained attached to their dioceses, at least in title.  Over time, this connection became a fiction.  Although the dioceses no longer existed, bishops continued to be ordained to the title of those dioceses.  There is actually no need for titular bishops: Almost everything that auxiliary bishops do in dioceses can also be done by simple priests with the appropriate mandate, with the exception of ordinations to deacons, priests or bishops.  Even in the Roman Curia there is no need for bishops as heads of authorities.  There, as with the nuncios, the episcopal consecration is more of a matter of protocol.

Question: … like Georg Gänswein.

Bier: Yes, his consecration is a good example.  His duties as Prefect of the Papal Household and Private Secretary to Pope Benedict XVI.  in any case, according to the substance, did not require any consecration.

Question: As long as such bishops have something to do or are retired, this is not a problem.  With titular Archbishop Gänswein, however, there seems to be a certain early retirement problem: He currently has no task, he is returning to the area of ​​the Archdiocese of Freiburg, where he was incardinated until his episcopal ordination.  What is the relationship between the archbishop of Friborg and the titular archbishop who lives in Fribourg?

Bier: With the consecration, Gänswein fell out of his original incardination association.  In fact, he is now just a bishop who lives in Freiburg – regardless of his biography.  There is no question that he has good personal reasons for moving back to his homeland.  Legally, however, there is no longer any relationship with this diocese.  The archbishop of Friborg has no different powers over him than over any other bishop who comes to his territory.  The Archbishop of Freiburg is not the hierarchical superior of Archbishop Gänswein.  Both are bishops and as such have the pope as superior, who in case of doubt would have to solve any conflicts himself or through his curia.

Question: According to the Archdiocese, it is common for German dioceses to top up the salary paid by the Vatican to their clergy in Rome, even if they become bishops.  This increase is to be retained for Gänswein - but according to your statements, probably without a legal obligation?

Beer: Yes.  However, it would be a very unkind act to stop the payments.  Above all, canon law regulates maintenance obligations towards emeritus diocesan bishops and auxiliary bishops, but nothing is stipulated for this case.  But such a bishop must be able to live on something.  However, the archdiocese's payments are not a "Lex Gänswein": All bishops returning home are regulated in a very similar and pragmatic manner, without an explicit regulation having been necessary up to now.

The Freiburg seminary Collegium Borromaeum

Image: ©KNA-Bild (archive image)

The Collegium Borromaeum in downtown Freiburg is the seminary of the Archdiocese.  Archbishop Georg Gänswein lives here after moving from Rome - making him almost a direct neighbor of Archbishop Stephan Burger.

Question: Do you see any other need for regulation?

Beer: Basically everything is regulated.  The diocesan bishop presides over and is responsible for his diocese.  His duties as chief director, judge, administrator, and so on, are not diminished or shared by the fact that there is another bishop in the territory of his diocese.  The rights of bishops in general are also clear.  It regulates what a bishop is allowed to do when he is not on his own territory: he is generally allowed to celebrate the Eucharist and administer the anointing of the sick.  Preaching or administering the sacrament of penance is permitted as long as the diocesan bishop does not forbid it in his territory.  Baptism requires permission as with any other cleric who is not a diocesan bishop or parish priest, confirmation requires at least the presumed permission of the diocesan bishop, and ordinations require permission from the incardinatory superior of the candidate for ordination.

 Question: And with the incardination?  Should one regulate more explicitly whether and how bishops are incardinated?

Bier: One could formulate the position of the bishop more clearly and state that he is at the head of the incardination association, either as head or as part of the association.  For titular bishops it could be regulated that they are without an incardination association and have the pope as their superior, or that a titular bishopric is also considered an incardination association.  But I doubt whether such clarifications are really needed.  Through the person Georg Gänswein this question suddenly becomes interesting, but in the case of emeritus nuncios, auxiliary bishops and curial bishops nobody has asked the question so it just seems to work like that.

Question: There was no normal retirement in the Gänswein case.

Bier: Exactly, he didn't offer his resignation, but was more or less clearly dismissed by the Pope.  This is a somewhat rude way of retiring someone, which is also not provided for in the law.  He formally held his office as Prefect of the Papal Household until this spring, but Pope Francis had already given him leave in 2020.  That's quite a strange story.  But what is happening in the Archdiocese of Freiburg is not strange, even if it is certainly a completely unfamiliar situation for the Archbishop of Freiburg.  What is strange is what happened in the Vatican and in the relationship between Pope Francis and Archbishop Gänswein.

 Question: ... exacerbated by the episcopal consecration.

 Bier: I think it's more worth thinking about than speculating about incardination: How necessary are clerics who are bishops by ordination level, but only perform tasks and offices for which episcopal ordination is generally not required?

 By Felix Neumann

Georg Gänswein at a reading

 Archdiocese plans talks about job and salary

Confirmed: Georg Gänswein is moving to the Freiburg seminary

It was certain that he would come – only where the former private secretary of the emeritus pope was staying was the subject of speculation.  Until now: Archbishop Georg Gänswein will be a neighbor of the incumbent Archbishop of Freiburg, the Archdiocese confirms.

AMDG