CV NEWS FEED // Archbishop Georg Gänswein will preside over a memorial Mass for the late Pope Benedict XVI at St. Peter’s Basilica on December 31. Gänswein served as Benedict’s personal secretary during and after his pontificate.
According to the Italian Catholic news site Silere non Possum, the Mass will mark one year since Benedict’s death. As of Thursday, there is no information as to which of the altars at St. Peter’s will be used for the commemoration.
Gänswein was forced to leave the Vatican after the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. The archbishop was the closest and most loyal collaborator of Pope Benedict’s since before his pontificate, when then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Gänswein then accompanied the pope emeritus from his resignation in February 2013 until his death in December 2022.
In early 2023, Pope Francis ordered Gänswein to vacate the convent inside the Vatican by June and return to his German diocese of origin. The order went against the longstanding tradition of appointing former papal secretaries to specific positions of service in the Church, which would especially apply to one holding the title of archbishop.
In July, Archbishop Stephan Burger of Freiburg (Germany) announced that Gänswein would become an honorary canon of the local cathedral, “where he is expected to preside over liturgies.”
This week’s memorial Mass will be the first time the German archbishop has been back to the Vatican since June.
