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Must leave the Vatican: Georg Gänswein (here in March in Munich)
Photo: Peter Kneffel / dpa
The long-time private secretary and confidant of Pope Benedict XVI, Georg Gänswein, has lost his top post in the Vatican as Prefect of the Papal Household. As the Holy See has now announced, the archbishop, who has already been on leave, will return to his home diocese of Freiburg on the instructions of Pope Francis.
Since the death of Benedict XVI on New Year's Eve 2022, the 66-year-old Gänswein had been waiting for Pope Francis to assign him a new task. Since then, Francis has received Gänswein twice in an official private audience.
The relationship between the current Pope and Gänswein has been considered strained for many years, because Benedict often spoke out after his resignation on church policy issues and criticized the course of his successor. Behind this, observers suspected the influence of Gänswein, which he rejected. The Vatican caused incomprehension and indignation that the German published a book about him shortly after Benedict's death and aggressively promoted it. In the book, he also describes private conversations with Francis.
According to reports, the current Pope made it clear to the archbishop that he had to leave the Vatican and suggested that he return to Germany. In Freiburg, an unusual situation now arises with two archbishops: Stephan Burger as head of the archdiocese and Gänswein as a returnee to Rome.
aeh/dpa