Zoom Image
Georg Gänswein (archive image)
Photo: Stefano Rellandini / REUTERS
After his return to Germany, the Catholic Archbishop Georg Gänswein will only be active in the Church to a limited extent. As the Archdiocese of Fribourg announced, the long-time private secretary of Pope Benedict XVI "will not take on a position in the Archbishop's Ordinariate and will not take on a permanent, permanent activity for the Archdiocese".
However, the 66-year-old will regularly preside over church services in Freiburg Cathedral, where he is an honorary canon, starting in the fall. The clergyman can also take on individual assignments, such as confirmations. Previously, the Archbishop of Freiburg, Stephan Burger, and Gänswein had exchanged views in a conversation.
Gänswein told the Italian newspaper Corriere della sera on Sunday: "I still have to find out what I'm going to do." At the moment, he is standing in the way and is "a pain in the ass". But Freiburg is a beautiful, livable city, with a wine that is better than the Italian one.
The Pope removed Gänswein from the Vatican
Gänswein, who is considered conservative, comes from the Black Forest and was ordained a priest in Freiburg. In 1995 he went to Rome and worked for Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI. Until his death on New Year's Eve 2022, Gänswein was Benedict's closest confidant and well connected in the Vatican. But Pope Francis sent the 66-year-old back to Freiburg, sealing his professional fate. At the beginning of July, Gänswein moved into an apartment in the Freiburg seminary.
The relationship between Francis and Gänswein was considered difficult. In the last years of the life of the emeritus "shadow pope" Benedict XVI, the German had increasingly staged himself as his mouthpiece and repeatedly criticized the course of the incumbent pontiff.
Ala