Archbishop Gänswein deeply critical of Synodal Path in new interview

Georg Gänswein: "It took me a long time to digest his decision"

Georg Gänswein stood by Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned in 2013. until his death at the end of 2022. He says he does not yet know what will happen next for the curial archbishop.

As private secretary, Georg Gänswein accompanied Pope Benedict XVI. for many years, even after his retirement. Why he once contradicted him - and what gets on his kidneys.

The evening before, Georg Gänswein presented his new book in Munich. The interest in him is great, the longtime private secretary of the former Pope Benedict XVI. has been in the headlines lately. Supposedly to the annoyance of Pope Francis, it is said. In "Nothing but the Truth" Gänswein writes, among other things, that he felt humiliated by him. Now he's sitting in a side room of a Munich hotel, giving interviews to a few select media. In the afternoon he flies back to Rome.

Archbishop Gänswein, what is the best experience you had with the late Pope Benedict XVI

Georg Gänswein: The fellowship with him, togetherness, walking together and supporting one another.

In your book "Nothing but the Truth" you write in many places about the "Papal Family", "our little family" of which you were a part.

Gänswein: The Papal family in the narrower sense refers to those people who live with the pope in the same household on the third floor of the papal palace. The word palace is a bit misleading, it sounds like gold and silver... In fact, it is a Renaissance palazzo, but there are also occasional power failures, a burst water pipe and leaking windows. Our community consisted of two secretaries, four Italian memores - women from the Comunione e Liberazione movement - and the Pope's secretary, Sister Birgit, a sister from the Schoenstatt movement. We lived together, that means we prayed, ate, celebrated church services and also personal celebrations. Trust was built there, just like in a family. And that's good, even for the pope, who is pretty much alone in his office.

What will become of your household after Benedict's death?

Gänswein: Now we're going our separate ways, but of course we keep in touch. We have already cleared out the Monastero, the small monastery in the Vatican. The move and move out is complete. I will move into my own apartment, the Memores will remain in Rome and will live in a house belonging to their movement. My new apartment is less than 70 metres away from the Vatican guest house Santa Marta, where Pope Francis lives.

What role did Benedict play in your “little family”?

Gänswein: Of course he was the head, the centre.

And you?

Gänswein: If you want to stay with the image of the family: I was the firstborn.

A very close relationship.

Gänswein: Yes, and it got closer and closer.

Do he use your first name?

Gänswein: No. Benedikt only used the first-name terms for a few people, usually people whom he used to use on the first-name terms.

What kind of person was Benedict?

Gänswein: A very mild, warm, open, empathetic person. And he was a good listener. When he spoke to you, he always looked you in the eye.

What did you talk to him about besides church or faith?

Gänswein: About personal experiences. When the enormous pressure and responsibility was removed from him after he resigned from office, we had more time for it. He often talked about his time as a child or seminarian. Also from his consecration comrades. He kept in contact throughout his life with the confreres with whom he was ordained a priest in 1951. Impressive. They wrote to each other often. Some by hand, some with the typewriter and then with the computer.

And Benedict?

Gänswein: Benedikt never used a typewriter or a computer. Everything he wrote he wrote by hand, often in shorthand, and then dictated it. When I was organizing his estate, I discovered some of his notes that he had made in 1946 when he was a freshman in the seminary in Freising. Already in shorthand, in a small notebook. He did it all the more when he prepared his lectures as a professor.

He told you to destroy his private notes after he died. Are these notes included?

Gänswein: No, no. These were personal letters to his parents, letters from his parents, his father or his mother to him or to his siblings, very personal letters. He had collected them all and urged me emphatically: "These personal letters are to be destroyed without excuse!"

You just said "acted". Are the letters already destroyed?

Gänswein: Yes, they are already shredded. That was a bitter act and it took me a lot to overcome it. As executor, I had to obey that will, and I did. In order for all of this to be legally impeccable, the Holy See had to authorize it, and insofar as the will also affected persons and institutions in Germany, it also had to be “legalized” by the German embassy in Rome. Benedict died on December 31st, and at the beginning of February I was finally able to start executing the will. The lion's share went to the "Pope Benedict XVI Institute" in Regensburg.

What exactly?

Gänswein: The entire library, manuscripts, lecture notes and his desk. He bought it when he was a young professor, and it accompanied him at every stage of his life until he died.

Have you tried to talk him out of destroying all his private papers?

Gänswein: No. He had already decided.

Did you contradict Benedict once?

Gänswein: Only once, when he told me he wanted to give up the Papal office. I said spontaneously: "It's not possible, it's impossible!" and I listed argument after argument of everything that speaks against it. Finally he said succinctly: “I have not reported anything to you to discuss. I have informed you of a decision I have made.” That ended the discussion. Of course, I then did everything to support and support him. But it took me a long time to digest his decision.

Have you accepted them now?

Gänswein: Of course. But even he often said to me: "I know that I have disappointed many of my friends and many believers around the world with this decision." But he had to put up with them because he could no longer carry out the Petrine ministry like he could must be exercised - with all strength, mind and body. Let's not forget that Benedikt was already 85 years old at the time. Wrong and stupid is the claim that he somehow "had had enough".

Back then, the “Vatileaks” scandal involving stolen and published documents made headlines. It was said that Benedict was slipping out of control...

Gänswein: Unfortunately, it is true that letters and other documents were indeed stolen. But the accusation is pure nonsense! How the accusation that he had come down from the cross! Anyone who knew Benedict and his understanding of office knows that there were more serious reasons for resigning from office. It is correct: His resignation was “unheard of”. The last pope to freely renounce office, comparable to Benedict's situation, was Pope Celestine V in 1294.

After his resignation, there was an emeritus Pope and an incumbent Pope, Francis. They became "servants of two masters".

Gänswein: It wasn't my fault, I didn't choose it. It took a lot of effort and I made mistakes too. I admit that. You are always wiser in hindsight. There is no shame in learning from mistakes.

Francis, one can understand it, deprived you of power. In January 2020 he told you: "You will remain prefect, but as of tomorrow you will no longer come to work." How is your relationship with each other?

Gänswein: Deprevation of power sounds silly. It is true that Pope Francis has ordered that I should now devote myself exclusively to the service of the Pope Emeritus. Of course I have always been loyal and obedient to the reigning Pope. I promised reverence and obedience and I keep that promise. Despite all the fairy tales spread in the media, the relationship between the Pope and me is absolutely relaxed.

Nevertheless, he has left you in the dark about your future for more than two years.

Gänswein: It has not yet been decided which task he would like to assign to me. That's correct. But the day will come when the decision will be made. I still have to be patient.

He received you on Saturday - and didn't tell you where he would like to use you?

Gänswein: I really can't tell you what he intends to do with me. He told me, "I haven't made a decision yet."

Where do you see your future?

Gänswein: Wherever: in the service of the church.

You write that in 2020 you were plagued by uncertainty about your future use, writing of a "psychosomatic disorder". How are you doing?

Gänswein: I had a sudden hearing loss in 2017. I had to go to the hospital because of complications. Unfortunately, I am left with a hearing loss in my left ear and slight problems with my balance. In August 2020 I had to go to the hospital again. It turned out to be kidney problems, luckily not a tumor. The years 2020 and 2021 were difficult years. My doctor, after he had studied my "medical history", told me one day that there were probably very strong psychosomatic elements at play. Isn't it aptly said that something gets to your kidneys? He advised me very clearly to do sports again as an outlet. In fact, I haven't done that in years. Thank goodness I'm back on the right track health wise.

Is the "Synodal Path" reform process in Germany getting to you too, the last meeting of which is now underway? Critics speak of a way to split the church, supporters see no alternative.

Gänswein: I'm seriously worried. In November, the German bishops made an ad limina visit to Rome, and in January they received a letter that the Pope expressly approved, from which it was very clear what “is the matter”. But the majority of German bishops do not seem to want to see this. I am therefore very excited to see what will be adopted this week at the last assembly of the Synodal Path. In any case, I am convinced that certain goals that the Synodal Assembly is striving for are not applicable to the Church as a whole. And that would have devastating consequences.

Like the limitation of clerical power by the Synodal Council?

Gänswein:... if the Synodal Path continues to pursue its declared goals unchanged, the Roman Catholic Church in Germany will bid farewell to the unity of the universal church.

The co-initiator of the Synodal Path, Munich Archbishop Reinhard Cardinal Marx, was no longer appointed to the Cardinals' Council by Francis and is therefore no longer one of his closest advisors. A sign?

Gänswein: I read that too and I'm surprised, to say the least.

Personal details Georg Gänswein, born in Waldshut in Baden-Württemberg in 1956, is the Archbishop of the Curia. In 2003 he became private secretary to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and remained so when he became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. became. After his surprising and historic resignation in 2013, Gänswein was at Benedict's side until his death on December 31, 2022. At the end of 2012, he had been appointed Prefect of the Papal Household, which Gänswein was also under Pope Francis – until he was given a leave of absence in early 2020.

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