POPE GRANTS LEAVE TO PREFECT OF PAPAL HOUSEHOLD

POPE GRANTS LEAVE TO PREFECT OF PAPAL HOUSEHOLD

VATICAN CITY, February 05, 2020 / 12:30 AM (CNA German) – Pope Francis has granted indefinite leave to Archbishop Georg Gänswein, prefect of the Prefecture of the Papal Household. Vatican circles confirmed a corresponding media report of the “Daily Mail” (Tagespost) on Wednesday morning to CNA German. He was granted leave to be able to dedicate more time to Benedict XVI.

The private secretary of the pope emeritus remains in office as head of the prefecture, which is responsible for preparing the pope’s public audiences. The prefect has been currently replaced at the papal audiences by the regent of the prefecture, Msgr. Leonardo Sapienza. When Gänswein will resume work in the prefecture is uncertain. (ganswein twitter)

According to the “Tagespost” story, the background is apparently the unfortunate presentation of Cardinal Robert Sarah’s book on the priesthood, to which Benedict XVI contributed an essay on the Catholic priesthood.

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(JFL: According to a note from the Holy See Press Office: “The absence of Monsignor Gaenswein during certain audiences in recent weeks is due to an ordinary redistribution of the various duties and functions of the prefect of the pontifical house, who also covers the role of special secretary of the pope emeritus.”)

(The following hypotheses have also been offered: 1. it’s a question of health issues, or 2. the brouhaha that resulted from this: Para two of the Tagespost article “The background is apparently the unfortunate presentation of Cardinal Robert Sarah’s book on the priesthood, to which Benedict XVI contributed an essay on the Catholic priesthood. The Fayard publishing house in France at first gave the impression that both the pope emeritus and the prefect of the Congregation for Worship intended to dictate to the incumbent Pope how he would answer the question raised by the Amazon Synod of ‘viri probati’.”)