Pope Francis Gives Abp. Gänswein a Leave of Absence

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Dear friends and enemies, the German Catholic daily Tagespost gives us news that Pope Bergoglio has granted Abp. Georg Gänswein a leave of absence for an unspecified amount of time. We are able to confirm from our own sources that the news is true; in fact the leave of absence has already been in effect for some time. Here are a few paragraphs from the Tagespost article that we have translated.

Pope Francis Gives a Leave of Absence to Abp. Gänswein

Pope Francis has granted the Prefect of the Papal Household, Abp. Georg Gänswein, a leave of absence for an unspecified amount of time. It is unclear when Gänswein will resume his duties.

Vatican sources have confirmed this news to this newspaper [Tagespost]. The private secretary of the Pope Emeritus remains in his office as head of the prefecture, which is responsible for the arrangement of all of the Pope's public audiences, but will be left free to dedicate more time to Benedict XVI.

Differences of Opinion Between Gänswein and Sarah

The backstory is apparently the unfortunate presentation of Cdl. Sarah's book on the priesthood, to which Benedict XVI had contributed an essay on celibacy and the Catholic priesthood. The French publisher Fayard had at first presented the book as being co-authored by both the Pope Emeritus and Sarah, the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, thereby giving the impression that they wanted to dictate to the Pope presently in office the way he ought to resolve the question of ordaining married "viri probati" as priests, which had been raised by the Amazon Synod.

[Translator's Note: It is quite interesting to read the "spin" being placed here on this story by the German daily Tagespost, downplaying the fact of Benedict XVI's personal authorship of an extensive section of the book].

More Details From Other Sources

From our own sources we are able to give some more details. In reality, for several weeks Gänswein has no longer been seen at the side of the pontiff, ever since the bomb exploded of the book written by Benedict XVI and Sarah.

Rumors are circulating in the Vatican about an explosion of anger from the pontiff, and of a turbulent meeting [with Gänswein]. But in reality, nothing like this happened. Pope Bergoglio simply said to the archbishop: "I don't want to see you anymore." The prefect asked him: "But am I returning, and when?" The Pontiff gave no reply to this question. When, however, Gänswein asked him, "But can I still come into the office?" the Pontiff replied, "It's better that you don't, since Msgr. Sapienza is there." And this is how Georg Gänswein disappeared ...

First published at Marco Tosatti's blog.

Translated by Giuseppe Pellegrino @pellegrino2020.

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