After the death of Pope Benedict XVI. According to his own statements, his long-time private secretary Georg Gänswein does not yet know what will happen to him. “The new task that awaits me is not yet known to me,” said the 66-year-old archbishop on Tuesday evening at the presentation of his book “Nothing but the Truth” in Munich. “I’m curious myself too, I don’t know.”
At an audience a few days ago, Pope Francis told him that he had not yet made a decision about Gänswein’s future – because “a few other decisions also played a role”.
Gänswein’s book about “My life with Benedict XVI.” – so the subtitle – was published in Italian immediately after the death of the emeritus pope and should be on the market in German this Wednesday. It also deals with the relationship between Benedict and his successor Pope Francis.
The Vatican has not officially commented on the book. Observers, however, recognized Francis’ statements as a reaction to the criticism. “Sometimes one word is enough to hurt or kill a brother or sister,” he said during an audience. “We think of slander, of gossip, which is so common, so commonplace, and so painful and destructive.”
Francis had put Gänswein on leave in 2020 after internal quarrels from the office of prefect of the Papal Household. The archbishop described the relationship with the current pontiff in Munich as initially good: “In terms of chemistry, things were actually fine between Papa Francesco and me.”
Gänswein said he discussed the decision to write the book with Pope Emeritus Benedict a few months before he died. According to Gänswein, he said: “Fine, then do it, but you have the responsibility.”
Info about the book
