Pope Francis has ordered Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, the private secretary and long-time aide of the late Pope Benedict, to return to his native Germany by the end of the month without any new assignment, the Vatican said on Thursday.
A Vatican statement put an end speculation about what role Gaenswein, a powerful figure in the Vatican for more than a decade before Francis sidelined him after a personal falling out, would have in the Church.
Gaenswein is 66 and it is exceptionally unusual for someone of that relatively young age and rank not to have an assignment, giving the pope's decision a sense of banishment. Nearly all papal secretaries in the past have either been assigned to lead dioceses or made cardinals or given some other high-profile post. Gaenswein is nine years short of the normal retirement age of 75 for bishops.
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