Archbishop Georg Gänswein ecstatic with new Pope: "The season of arbitrariness is over. The confused past must be overcome" "The institutions of the Church are not a leprosy"

Cathcon: Just goes to show how terrible the years following renunciation must have been for Pope Benedict.

Monsignor Georg Gänswein: "The season of arbitrariness is over. The confused past must be overcome"

Ratzinger's former prefect, now Nuncio to the Baltics. "The institutions of the Church are not a leprosy"

"A middle way between Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis? If we combine Bergoglio's black shoes with Ratzinger's crystalline doctrinal clarity, without seeking originality at all costs, I think Leo XIV will offer a nice combination. Yes, he could represent the synthesis of the best things of both". 

Cathcon: What a statement!  All that remains really are black shoes.

The voice of Monsignor Georg Gänswein comes from the Baltic cold of Vilnius, in Lithuania, where he has been nuncio since June of last year, carrying out his diplomatic activity also in Latvia and Estonia. He has a cheerful, almost relieved vibration. The man who was prefect of the Papal Household under Benedict XVI and then under Francis, by whom he was abruptly removed in 2020, followed the Conclave and the election of Robert Prevost from afar. And he does not hide the fact that he is happily surprised by the epilogue, even if he admits that he knows little about the new pontiff.

"I met him with Pope Benedict when he was Superior General of the Augustinians, in the Vatican gardens. And again when in April 2007 he visited the cathedral of Pavia where the tomb of Saint Augustine is. Then he became bishop in Peru and I never saw him again. But his election was a great and good surprise for me. When I saw him come out onto the balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica I said to myself: optically and acoustically, this Pope inspires hope, hope, hope ..."

The written text

He was also struck by his decision to read the opening greeting: a small gesture of rigor and seriousness in front of the global audience that was cheering him. "When I saw that he had a written text in his hand, I said to myself: he started well," says the former right-hand man of the Pope Emeritus and, for seven years, also of Francis. For "Don Georg", as he was familiarly called, "Leo XIV will build bridges like his predecessor. But in a different context and style than Francis. In the Church today there are great tensions, and outside there are frightening conflicts. I believe that doctrinal clarity is needed now. The confusion of these years must be overcome. And one of the tools to use are the structures that already exist. The institutions of the Church are neither a leprosy nor a threat against the Pope. They are there to provide help to the pontiffs, who must ask for help. You cannot govern alone, distrusting your own institutions".

In his words, one can clearly sense the echo of a different perception of the way of leading Christianity between Benedict XVI and his Argentine predecessor. But in parallel, one can sense the desire to archive that phase, and that January 15, 2020, when Monsignor Gänswein was seen for the last time in a general audience to the right of Bergoglio as guardian of the Pontifical Household. From then on, he literally disappeared from any public meeting, without anyone explaining the reasons. Except, about a month later, a bureaucratic and not very credible statement from the Vatican press office. "An ordinary redistribution of functions," it was communicated, without anyone fully believing it. "But that is water under the bridge," assures the nuncio in Vilnius. "In those years I suffered, it's true, but I made things clear with Francis even before my appointment as nuncio. And I thank him, or whoever is behind him and who decided to send me here to the Baltic countries, because it allowed me to resume my service to the Church."

It is as if the reflection of the pacification that came from the almost unanimous vote in the Sistine Chapel was projected onto the old divisions, and contributed to reducing them, if not to recomposing them. The new phase of Leo XIV's papacy can also be deduced from this transversal desire to close with the past. "Pope Prevost gives me great hope. I am convinced that he will have a positive impact within the Church and in the world. He is a peacemaker," explains Monsignor Gänswein. "The choice of his name, in the tradition of Saint Leo the Great and Leo III who crowned Charlemagne in 800, is very indicative. His name and his dress have made it clear that there will be no continuity but a totally new phase. His experience, his ability to speak many languages, the fact that he was a missionary but also that he worked in the Curia for two years make him a Pope who is both a pastor and a government. He does not come from a single environment but from many things at once. And this will allow him to speak to everyone."

"Shocked by the choice"

The former right-hand man of Benedict XVI and, until 2020, of Francis, admits to being shocked by the choice of an American. "I remember that I said to some people: when the white smoke is seen it will probably be for Cardinal Pietro Parolin, or I don’t know what happens. Honestly, I tended to firmly exclude the election of another Latin American. But even a North American seemed unlikely to me. I hope that not only some cardinals from a certain continent but all of them were helped by the Holy Spirit". He doesn’t say it explicitly, but he seems impressed by the skill with which the Americans moved, managing to consolidate their consensus with that of the Latin Americans and the supporters of the Secretary of State, Parolin; and probably also by the divisions of the Italian cardinals. And now? "Now a new phase is beginning. I perceive a certain widespread relief. The season of arbitrariness is over. We can begin to count on a papacy capable of guaranteeing stability and relying on existing structures, without overturning and upsetting them."

No more Pope at Casa Santa Marta? "I believe that Leo XIV will certainly go to live in the Apostolic Palace. That palace is intended to be the residence of the Popes. It is its historical function." Is the anomaly of Casa Santa Marta over? "You say the word anomaly. I can only observe that I am pleased to think that in the evening, in the Apostolic Palace, the Pope will turn on the light and people will know that he is there."

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See also "The Ten Sins of Pope Francis"