Pope Francis Removes Long-Time Benedict Aide

Facts

• Pope Francis has ordered the removal of Archbishop Georg Gänswein, a close aide and confidant of the late Pope Benedict XVI, sending him back to his native Germany by the end of the month without any new assignment.¹
• In February, Gänswein had “concluded his assignment as prefect of the Papal Household,” and the Vatican released a statement Thursday saying that Pope Francis “has directed that from July 1 Archbishop Gänswein return, for the time being, to his home diocese” of Freiburg, Germany.²
• While personal secretaries of a Pope usually leave the position at the end of a Papacy, Gänswein served a unique role under retired Pope Benedict before his passing and current Pope Francis since 2013, which he described as a “challenge.”³
• Despite officially holding the position as a papal prefect, he stopped actively working for Francis after the publication of a 2020 book co-written with Benedict and Francis critic Robert Sarah that painted him in a negative light at a time he was reconsidering priestly celibacy.⁴
• Tensions between Gänswein and Francis ran higher after Gänswein’s memoir "Nothing But The Truth - My Life Beside Benedict XVI" was sent to reporters just hours after Benedict’s Jan. 5 burial, which described an alleged rift between the two popes.⁵
• At 66 years old, Gänswein is nine years short of the typical retirement age for bishops, which makes his lack of reassignment unexpected.⁶

Sources: ¹Reuters, ²Catholic Review, ³National Catholic Reporter, ⁴Associated Press, ⁵Yahoo News, and ⁶US News & World Report.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Italy 24 Press News. It's quite obvious that there has been a falling out between Pope Francis and Archbishop Gänswein since his 2020 book written with Benedict. Add the fact that Gänswein released another book with an unfavorable view of Francis this year; it’s easy to connect the dots. Pope Francis clearly dislikes Gänswein and got rid of him as soon as he could following Benedict’s death.
• Narrative B, as provided by Crux. While there may be some reason to speculate that Gänswein’s removal from his papal position is a sign of a deepening rift between Pope Francis and the long-term secretary of his predecessor, it's far more likely that the Vatican is following the standard practice of returning an aide home after a Pope’s death. There's nothing unusual about Gänswein returning to Germany now that Pope Benedict has passed, and it shouldn't be treated as something more than a standard operational move.