“No club of priests and main officials”

Archbishop Georg Ganswein © Andreas Gebert

He has also no patent remedy for the difficult pastoral situation; "but a chance certainly lies in the manifold commitment of the many volunteers," said Ganswein. The church is not a club of priests and full-time ministers.

At the same time, the archbishop of the Curia called for Germany not to focus solely on irritant ies such as the role of women in the church, sexual morality or the exclusion of remarried divorcees from the sacraments. "From the perspective of the world church, these are not the deep ies of faith" – even if they are "kept constantly simmering" in Germany.

"High time to throw off ballast"

Ganswein recalled Pope Francis' call for a poor church during the panel discussion in the studio of the Sudwestrundfunk (SWR) radio station. "When accumulated wealth harms the witness of faith, it is high time to throw off ballast."

This is also the concern of Pope Benedict XVI, he said. Had been when he called for a "de-worldization" of the church. "The strange thing is just that Pope Francis is being hailed for his statements, and Benedict XVI. had to take a beating for the substantively same line," Ganswein said.

No further planning yet

Ganswein did not want to comment further on his own career planning – for example, with regard to a return to Germany as diocesan bishop. "As long as Pope Benedict lives, I will be his secretary. It distracts from my work if I make any plans now."

Ganswein grew up in the southern Black Forest in Riedern am Wald (Waldshut/Tiengen district) and studied theology in Freiburg and Munich. In 1994, he became personal advisor to the then Archbishop of Freiburg, Oskar Saier. A little later he moved to the Vatican and became assistant to Curia Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who made him his private secretary after his election as pope. Today he also works closely with Pope Francis.