2023-06-02 18:59:00
June 2, 2023 / 11:59 a.m.
According to a German newspaper report, Pope Francis has asked Archbishop Georg Gänswein to leave the Vatican and return to Germany at the end of June.
The former private secretary of Pope Benedict XVI has been asked to return to his home diocese of Freiburg, in southwestern Germany, but has not been given any office or assignment, the Welt newspaper reported Friday.
According to CNA Deutsch, the German agency of the ACI Group, Pope Francis communicated his willingness to Bishop Gänswein, 66, during a private audience on May 19.
At the time of writing this publication, Bishop Gänswein had not responded to a query from CNA Deutsch, and the Vatican has not issued any communication in this regard either.
The future role of the former secretary of the late Benedict XVI has been the subject of rumors in Rome and in the Church in Germany for months. Previous speculation suggested that Bishop Gänswein would be appointed as Papal Nuncio in Costa Rica. The prelate is fluent in several languages, including German and Italian.
According to German media, Pope Francis would have referred to the custom that the former private secretaries of the Pontiffs have not remained in Rome.
Msgr. Gänswein, Benedict XVI’s private secretary for many years, was also prefect of the Papal Household both during the late Pontiff’s pontificate and that of his successor, Pope Francis, until February 2020.
Originally from the Black Forest region of Germany and the son of a blacksmith, Bishop Gänswein was ordained a priest in 1984 by the then Archbishop of Freiburg, Bishop Oskar Saier. He has a doctorate in Canon Law from the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich (Germany).
Bishop Gänswein is expected to arrive in Germany at the end of this week. He is scheduled to preside at Mass on Sunday June 4 in an annual pilgrimage to the Cistercian monastery of Stiepel near Bochum in the west of the country.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally posted on CNA.
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