Fr. Georg Secretary. Confirmed

The Chiesa
November 26, 2012

http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350370?eng=y


ROME, November 23, 2012 – Tomorrow's consistory with the creation of six new cardinals has been hailed with a fireworks display of conjectures.

It was above all the bestowal of the scarlet to the American archbishop James Michael Harvey that uncorked the more or less bizarre hypotheses on the future configuration of Vatican leadership.

Last October 24, in proclaiming the consistory, Benedict XVI had announced Harvey's appointment as archpriest of the papal basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls.

And this immediately brought up the question of whom the pope would place in the crucial position occupied by Harvey until that time, that of prefect of the pontifical household, the person who sets the schedule of papal audiences.

On the morning of Friday, November 23, the eve of the consistory, the prominent newspaper of the Italian left, "il Fatto Quotidiano," by the pen of the vaticanista Marco Politi, published an article with this peremptory title:

"Father Georg Ganswein promoted and 'removed.' Ratzinger's devoted follower, implicated in the Vatileaks scandal, will no longer be his personal secretary."

The article gave it as certain that Ganswein would be stripped of his role of first secretary of Benedict XVI, and at the same time installed in the position of prefect of the pontifical household, occupied until then by Harvey.

But that same morning, a few hours after the publication of the article by "il Fatto Quotidiano," an official Vatican statement made both of these things unlikely.

The statement revealed that the pope had appointed Harvey as archpriest of St. Paul's. With the implicit consequence that from that moment the position of prefect of the pontifical household was vacant.

If, therefore, it had truly been established that Ganswein was destined for this position, it makes no sense why it was not attributed to him immediately.

If this did not take place, it is not because it had been inexplicably decided to delay by days or weeks the installation of Ganswein into the newly open role of prefect of the pontifical household, but simply because this appointment had never been taken into consideration by the pope.

It is certain, in fact, that Ganswein will remain in his position as first secretary of Benedict XVI.

And remaining in his position, it is unthinkable that he should also be promoted as prefect of the pontifical household and archbishop.

Theoretically, the twofold position is possible. But the precedent of Stanislaw Dziwisz, who while remaining the secretary of John Paul II was appointed during the last years of the pontificate also as archbishop and "adjunct prefect," does not come down in favor of a repetition of the operation, which at the time was highly criticized for the excess of power that it brought to him.

With Ganswein remaining in his place beside the pope, another of the conjectures falls: that of his imminent return to Germany, as bishop of Regensburg.

As for the repercussions of the theft of confidential documents from the pope's apartment, the trust of Benedict XVI in his secretary has not wavered for even a moment.

Instead, steps have been taken to guarantee more than in the past the inviolability of the personal correspondence of Benedict XVI.

The pope's new butler, Sandro Mariotti – who has replaced Paolo Gabriele, serving his sentence in prison – has not been assigned any "workspace" in the quarters of the two pontifical secretaries. This room, adjacent to the pope's study, has been made off-limits to other persons.

And since the day of Gabriele's arrest, last May 24, access to the papal apartment has also been denied to Ingrid Stampa, Joseph Ratzinger's personal assistant when he was a cardinal, who afterward became his colleague with a position in the secretariat of state.

The fact that Ingid Stampa should figure as the translator and editor of the Italian edition of the book by Benedict XVI on the childhood of Jesus, published in recent days, is not a sign of increased confidence in her. It is simply the outcome of the work entrusted to her before the outbreak of the scandal.

A work that is not without its faults. As proven by the error already pointed out by www.chiesa on page 136 of the Italian edition, where the shoot of the Messiah is incredibly made to sprout "from the dead trunk of Isaiah," instead of from the trunk of Jesse, the father of David, as stated by the biblical prophecy and as written, correctly, in the original German of the book.