Foreign
THE long-time private secretary of the late Pope Benedict XVI, Georg Gänswein, is to return to his home diocese of Freiburg in south-western Germany.
Gänswein’s return would not be that he has a post there, according to a report on Friday.
Pope Francis told Gänsewein to leave Rome by July, at the latest, Germany’s Die Welt newspaper reported.
Talks about the move were ongoing and had not been concluded yet, according to dpa’s information.
The decision was made in May during a private audience, the newspaper reported, citing several high-ranking Church sources.
The step came after several weeks of back and forth, the sources said.
Gänswein is said to have suggested a series of possible posts he could take up, while Francis reportedly suggested he could become a theology professor.
A spokesman for the archdiocese of Freiburg stated on request that the diocesan management could not comment on the report.
Gänswein led a service in Freiburg Cathedral in mid-May.
He had been waiting for Pope Francis to assign him a new post since the death of former Pope Benedict XVI at the end of 2022.
Francis had since received him three times for an official private audience.
There had been speculation that Gänswein might become a Vatican ambassador to Costa Rica or that he could become archbishop of Bamberg in the southern German province of Bavaria. (dpa/NAN)
TS
Tags: Georg Gänswein Germany’s Die Welt newspaper Pope Benedict XVI
