According to a German newspaper report, Pope Francis ordered Archbishop Georg Gänswein to leave the Vatican and return to Germany by the end of June. 

Newsroom(04/06/2023 15:35, Gaudium Press) The longtime private secretary of Pope Benedict XVI has been told to return to his home diocese of Freiburg in southwest Germany but has not been given any role or assignment, the Welt newspaper reported on Friday.

The article in the Welt speaks of “reckoning”, “humiliation” and “demotion”. The pontiff had informed Gänswein of his decision in a private audience on 19 May.

Pope Francis had “referred to the custom that the former private secretaries of deceased popes do not remain in Rome”.

The newspaper refers to sources in Rome – an official confirmation though is still pending. Speculation about the future of the Black Forest-born German clergyman has been circulating for months. Media had reported in March that Gänswein would go to Costa Rica – until this news turned out to be dubious.

A little later, in April, the Pope had said in an interview with the Argentinian newspaper La Nación that Gänswein could decide for himself “whether he stays in Italy or returns to Germany”.

Either way, Gänswein “will have to stay outside the Vatican walls”, the article said, based on an interview with Pope Francis. However, the pontiff was not directly quoted in connection with Gänswein.

Officially, the 66-year-old Gänswein is apparently still Prefect of the Papal Household and thus actually responsible for the non-liturgical events with the Pope. Since the beginning of 2020, however, he has been “on leave”, according to the Vatican’s official language.

Gänswein, who was ordained a bishop in 2013, writes in his memoirs entitled “Nothing but the truth” that Pope Francis told him at the end of January 2020, after a series of problems in the wake of a book publication by Pope Benedict and Cardinal Robert Sarah on celibacy: “You stay at home from now on. You accompany Benedict, who needs you, and shield him.”

The archbishop replied at the time that he could not understand the decision but accepted it “in obedience”. To this, the pontiff had replied: “You said that well. I know that because in my personal experience it is a good thing to ‘obediently accept’ something.”

When initial observers noted that Gänswein was no longer attending various events hosted by the Pope as Prefect of the Papal Household, he asked the Pope if he could return to normal. In writing, Francis said: “Dear brother, thank you very much for your letter. For now, I think it is better to maintain the status quo. I thank you for all you are doing for Pope Benedict: let him want for nothing. I pray for you, please do the same for me. May the Lord bless you and the Blessed Mother keep you. Fraternally, Francis.”

Since the situation was not clarified in this way, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI also wrote to Pope Francis asking whether he could provide clarity for Gänswein “with a fatherly conversation”. The private secretary writes in “Nothing but the Truth”: “A few days later, the Pope summoned me to a meeting in Santa Marta, where he confirmed that nothing would change. On the other hand, the Pope Emeritus’ new request at the end of his letter of 17 February did not elicit any further reaction: ‘I humbly ask you once again for a word about Archbishop Gänswein’.”

About half a year later, Gänswein explained in another conversation that he had taken his leave of absence as a punishment, whereupon Pope Francis stressed that he had not meant it that way. That the media public interpreted it that way was not a problem, the Pope said: “There are many who write against you and against me, but they don’t deserve attention.” Afterwards, Francis recounted “once again some of his troublesome experiences in Argentina” and said “it made him mature every time obstacles were put in his way”.

Gänswein will celebrate Holy Mass next Sunday at the annual pilgrimage of the Eichsfeld people in the Cistercian monastery of Stiepel near Bochum.

– Raju Hasmukh with files from CNA Germany