VATICAN CITY
Chiesa
VATICAN CITY, December 19, 2012 – At the upcoming feast of Epiphany, Benedict XVI will consecrate as bishop, together with other prelates, Monsignor Georg Gänswein, his personal secretary since 2003, recently appointed prefect of the pontifical household.
Gänswein will keep his previous position, and will continue to live in the pontifical apartment. This signifies that, after the tempest of Vatileaks and the conviction of the butler Paolo Gabriele, Benedict XVI – with a gesture that seems to have no precedent – has confirmed, or rather redoubled, his trust toward his closest coworker.
In effect, looking at the latest pontificates, no churchman had ever taken on the positions of personal secretary and prefect of the pontifical household. With John Paul II, in fact, his personal secretary Stanislaw Dziwisz was made only “adjunct” prefect, and appointed bishop in 1998 at the age of 59, to be elevated in 2003 to the dignity of archbishop.
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