Archbishop Gänswein Returns Home

The press has especially refrained from reading the work – developed by Gänswein – with the idea of a solution for the break in continuity between the current Pontificate and the previous one, in particular regarding the liturgy. Thus, the Argentine Pontiff did not either consult or inform his predecessor that in July 2021, he was canceling one of the major reforms of Benedict XVI’s pontificate, granting the possibility of celebrating the traditional Latin Mass as an “extraordinary” form of the Roman rite.

During the signing session, the former confidant of Benedict XVI was ironic about his personal situation: “I am here now, I’m looking for a job, so to speak. I have even contacted an employment agency.” Last June, in fact, the Press Office of the Holy See confirmed that Pope Francis had asked Archbishop Georg Gänswein to return to his diocese of origin in Germany beginning July 1, but with no new assignment.

It must be said that more than one German prelate looked little gray – to put it mildly – when they learned of the return to the country of the protege of the late Benedict XVI. Given the progressive coloring of a large part of the episcopate in the country, one would hardly be surprised.

Although he declares himself to be “unemployed,” Gänswein is not under house arrest. On August 15, the former prefect of the Pontifical Household celebrated the Mass of the Assumption at Maria-Vesperbild, in Bavaria-Swabia. His visit to the famous Marian shrine in southern Germany was widely publicized there.

In his homily, the prelate said that at a time when “thousands of Catholics are leaving the Church in Germany,” this sanctuary constitutes an “antidote,” against the “poison” of the current era.

Referring in covert words to the synodal approach dear to the Pontiff, he claimed to see in these departures a “sign of rottenness inside the Church and a resulting weakening of faith, saying that if faith is no longer proclaimed joyfully and does not transform lives, it is only a question time ‘until a branch that is no longer nourished dries up and dies.’”

Asked by the press about the Mass he celebrated on the altar directed ad orientem, Archbishop Gänswein explained that celebrating this way gives him an inner concentration, “which in my opinion takes nothing at all from the prayer of those who celebrate Holy Mass. The common look at the Lord does not disturb, but contributes to the gathering.”

Taking as his own the words that Pope Francis had spoken – like a mantra – to the young people present in Portugal for World Youth Day, on the evening of last August 3 – “The Church is open to all, to all , to all, all” – Benedict XVI’s former secretary concluded: “Everyone longs to be accepted, especially in difficult situations,” he said, continuing, “’any doors that have been slammed in our faces,’ including those of ‘slander from ambush,’ as well as a growing experience of loneliness.”

Suffice to say that the return home may be quite troubling for the Pope, because there will not be a lack of voices – from Bavaria and elsewhere – vigorously rising against the train of progressive reforms conveyed in the wake of the synodal path.