The Vatican appoints Pope Benedict’s longtime secretary as its envoy to the Baltic states

Berlin, Germany AP Pope Francis has appointed the longtime secretary of the late Pope Benedict XVI, who was sent back to his native Germany without a new assignment last year after he fell out with the current pontiff, as the Vatican’s diplomatic representative to the Baltic states. The Vatican announced in its daily bulletin on Monday that […]
Pope exposes confidential details of past conclaves and settles scores with Pope Benedict XVI’s aide

Vatican City AP Pope Francis has exposed the political “maneuvers” used to sway votes during the two most recent elections of popes, while denying he is planning to reform the process for future conclaves, in a book-length interview published Tuesday. The revelations are contained in The Successor: My Memories of Pope Benedict XVI, in which the Argentine […]
Pope Benedict’s ex-secretary won’t get a permanent job in his new German archdiocese

Berlin, Germany AP The longtime secretary to the late Pope Benedict XVI won’t be given a permanent job in the German archdiocese where he has settled, but will lead regular services at Freiburg’s cathedral and can take on “individual assignments” such as confirmations, church authorities said Monday. The Vatican announced last month that Pope Francis […]
Pope Francis orders ex-aide of Pope Benedict to leave Vatican

Vatican City Reuters Pope Francis has ordered Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, the private secretary and long-time aide of the late Pope Benedict, to return to his native Germany by the end of the month without any new assignment, the Vatican said on Thursday. A Vatican statement put an end speculation about what role Gaenswein, a powerful […]
Pope Benedict XVI’s aide acknowledges criticism over memoir

Rome, Italy AP The longtime secretary to Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged Sunday that his tell-all memoir, published in the days after Benedict’s death, had been criticized for casting Pope Francis in an unfavourable light, but insisted that some of the polemics were more about anti-Benedict prejudice than anything else. In some of his first public […]
Ten years of Pope Francis: As the pontiff marks a decade in the office, conservatives confront post-Benedict era

PHILIP PULLELLA, of Reuters, reports…
Late Pope Benedict’s top aide to be given a new job

Rome, Italy Reuters Pope Francis will decide on a new role for German Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, a critic of the pontiff who was the long-term senior aide to his predecessor Benedict, in the coming days, Gaenswein said. Gaenswein made the comment to Italian RAI public television in an extract from an interview to be broadcast […]
Pope meets with Benedict’s aide amid revelations in new book

Rome, Italy AP Pope Francis met on Monday with Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, the longtime secretary of Pope Benedict XVI who was a key figure in his recent funeral but who has raised eyebrows with an extraordinary memoir in which he settles old scores, reveals palace intrigues and casts Francis in a deeply unfavourable light. The Vatican provided no details […]
Benedict aide’s tell-all book will expose “dark maneuvers”

Vatican City AP Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s longtime personal secretary has written a tell-all book that his publisher on Monday promised would tell the truth about the “blatant calumnies,” “dark maneuvers,” mysteries and scandals that sullied the reputation of a pontiff best known for his historic resignation. Archbishop Georg Gaenswein’s Nothing but the Truth: My […]
Benedict leaves German homeland with complicated legacy

Berlin, Germany AP Pope Benedict XVI leaves his homeland with a complicated legacy: pride in a German pontiff but a church deeply divided over the need for reforms in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal in which his own actions of decades ago were faulted. Benedict has long drawn mixed reviews in Germany, a […]