Pope sends Benedict XVI's former aide back to Germany in latest sign of falling out

Pope Francis has fired the longtime aide to the late Pope Benedict XVI and ordered him to return to his native Germany

Pope Francis has fired the longtime aide to the late Pope Benedict XVI from his Vatican job and ordered him to return to his native Germany, the final chapter in a very public falling out that culminated with the aide’s tell-all memoir that was highly critical of Francis.

The Vatican confirmed that Archbishop Georg Gaenswein had officially ended his job as prefect of the papal household as of Feb. 28. A statement issued Thursday while Francis was in the hospital recovering from abdominal surgery said the pope had ordered Gaenswein to return to Freiburg, Germany, his diocese of origin, by July 1.

While all papal secretaries usually return to their dioceses of origin following the death of the pope they served, the Vatican's announcement betrayed some of the ill-will that had developed between Francis and Gaenswein. Francis gave Gaenswein no new assignment, and at 66, he is nearly a decade too young to retire.

Speculation about Gaenswein’s future had swirled following Benedict’s Dec. 31 death and deepened a week later with the publication of the archbishop's memoir, “Nothing But the Truth: My Life Beside Pope Benedict XVI.”

In the book, Gaenswein recounted his life serving Benedict but also acting as prefect of the papal household under Francis. He revealed palace intrigues, settled old scores and cast Francis in a deeply unfavorable light, puncturing the carefully curated notion that the cohabitation of two popes, one active and one retired, had been a happy one.

Published during a tense mourning period after Benedict's death, the book became one of several lines of attack against Francis by allies of the more doctrinaire late German pope.

In reality, Gaenswein had stopped actively working as prefect of the papal household in 2020 following the publication of a previous book that got him in trouble with Francis.

In that case, Benedict was listed as the co-author of a book that argued for the necessity of maintaining priestly celibacy. Co-written with a noted Francis critic, Cardinal Robert Sarah, it caused a firestorm because it was released at the same time Francis was weighing whether to allow married priests in the Amazon to address a priest shortage there.

The book thus implied that the retired pope was trying to influence the reigning one. Gaenswein, on whom Benedict increasingly relied in his final years, was widely seen as having been responsible for the gaffe.

Francis immediately sidelined Gaenswein, sending him away from the papal household with the excuse that he needed to care more full-time for Benedict, even while allowing him to keep the title as prefect.

The new order for Gaenswein to return to Freiburg said the transfer was just “for the moment,” but there was no sign of what he might do there.

The Freiburg diocese confirmed in a brief emailed response to a query about Gaenswein’s future that he would leave Rome in the first week of July and take up residence in the city. It said he was relieved of his duties as the prefect of the papal household “without another role having been given to him at present.” The diocese added that “this remains subject to future considerations.”

In one of his last acts at the Vatican, Gaenswein was called to testify this week before a Vatican tribunal in an alleged misappropriation of funds case involving the former heads of the Sistine Chapel Choir. Gaenswein had flagged some irregularities in the accounts of the choir, which technically is part of the papal household.

Judge Giuseppe Pignatone allowed Gaenswein to testify before the defendants, noting at the start of Monday's hearing that he was making the exception because Gaenswein was “soon going abroad.”

Before recounting what had happened to the court, Gaenswein took the oath to tell the whole truth – coincidentally reciting the very title of the book that apparently sealed his fate with Francis: “Nothing but the truth.”

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Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin.