Thursday, August 17, 2023

Archbishop Gänswein ‘looking for work’

Gänswein: Benedict XVI expected to live only a few months after resigning

Archbishop Georg Gänswein, who is living in Freiburg, Germany, since being ordered by Pope Francis to leave Rome, has said that he is “looking for work, so to speak.”

The 67-year-old archbishop, who was private secretary to Pope Benedict XVI, has been given no pastoral assignment. He is currently living in the Freiburg seminary.

Archbishop Gänswein lost favor with Pope Francis in 2020, after the publication of a book in which Pope-emeritus Benedict and Cardinal Robert Sarah defended clerical celibacy. 

At that time Pope Francis instructed Gänswein to devote all his energy to the care of the retired Pope - effectively dismissing him from the Pontifical Household. 

After the death of Pope Benedict, in June of this year Pope Francis instructed the archbishop to return to his native Germany.