The recent statements made by Archbishop Georg Gänswein after the death of Benedict XVI have caused turmoil among cardinals and archbishops.
Newsroom (10/01/2023 10:09 AM, Gaudium Press) — Certain media, always eager to engage its public with the latest and most sensational news, seems to have placed a microscope on Francis’ every word following the death of Benedict XVI.
On Sunday 8, the Pontiff prayed and meditated the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square, focusing on the Baptism of the Lord, the day’s liturgical feast.
As Jesus Christ went to the Jordan to be baptized by the John, it was “he first time that Jesus appears in public after his hidden birth in Nazareth,” the Pope introduced.
Why be baptized? “He, the Saint of God, the Son of God without sin.” “By having himself baptized, Jesus reveals God’s justice, that justice He came to bring into the world,” that is, fundamentally, to make man righteous, that is, good. Jesus “he came to take on his own shoulders the sin of the world and to descend into the waters of the abyss, death, so as to rescue us from drowning.“
The Pope quoted his predecessor, when Benedict XVI stated that “God desired to save us by going to the bottom of this abyss himself so that every person, even those who have fallen so low that they can no longer perceive Heaven, may find God’s hand to cling to and rise from the darkness to see again the light for which he or she was made” (Homily, 13 January 2008)
Yet, at the end of his meditation, the Pontiff also emphasized that we are called to exercise this merciful justice in our relationships with others “not dividing, but sharing. Not dividing, but sharing. Let us do as Jesus did: let us share, let us carry each other’s burdens instead of gossiping and destroying, let us look at each other with compassion, let us help each other.”
“Let us ask ourselves: am I a person who divides or shares? Think a little: am I a disciple of Jesus’ love or a disciple of gossip, that divides. Gossip is a lethal weapon: it kills, it kills love, it kills society, it kills fraternity. Let us ask ourselves: am I a person who divides or a person who shares?“
Many Italian media outlets interpret these words of the Pontiff as directed mainly at Msgr. Georg Ganswein, Benedict XVI’s personal secretary, who has been very much in the spotlight in recent days, not only for his closeness to the German Pope but also for statements in which he shows points of contrast between Benedict and himself with Francis.
Arch. Ganswein has said in recent days – or has it been published what he says in his forthcoming book – that the Pope Emeritus read the withdrawal of his relaxation in the celebration of the pre-conciliar liturgy “with pain in his heart.” That Arch. Ganswein, was summarily and de facto dismissed by Francis from his duties as Prefect of the Pontifical Household with the words “you are still prefect, but do not return to work tomorrow”; that Pope Francis did not accept Benedict XVI’s expressed desire to confront deleterious gender ideology.
Indeed, according to the list of papal audiences published by the Vatican Press Office, Pope Francis received Archbishop Ganswein this morning. The tenor of the conversation with Francis, who most likely addressed the question of the archbishop’s future, was not revealed.
Compiled by Gustavo Kralj