Georg Gänswein

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Monsignor Georg Gänswein (right) is the personal secretary to Pope Benedict XVI (left).

Reverend Monsignor Georg Gänswein, JCD (born July 30, 1956 in Waldshut, Baden-Württemberg) is a German priest of the Roman Catholic Church, and the personal secretary of Pope Benedict XVI.

Known by Italians as Don Giorgio or (due to his handsome looks) Beautiful George, Gänswein was born in a small town of Germany and ordained to the priesthood in 1984. Upon his ordination, Gänswein dedicated himself to rigorous academic activities. He received his doctorate in canon law at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich in 1993, and arrived in Rome in 1995 as an official of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

In 1996, Gänswein was invited by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to join the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. After being appointed to Cardinal Ratzinger's staff, Gänswein became professor of canon law at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. In 2000, Gänswein was elevated by Pope John Paul II to Chaplain of His Holiness. Msgr. Gänswein replaced Josef Clemens as Ratzinger's secretary in 2003, upon Clemens's appointment to the Pontifical Council for the Laity. Ratzinger was elected to the papacy in 2005, and a year later he named his secretary a Prelate of His Holiness. Gänswein has been rumoured to replace the ageing Friedrich Cardinal Wetter as the new Archbishop of Munich and Freising. However, it is unclear if Benedict will let him take up this position.

In his private life, Gänswein devotes his time to playing tennis, skiing, and flying airplanes.

In an interview in July 2006, he described the Pope's day: "The Pope’s day begins with Mass at 7am, followed by morning prayer and a period of contemplation. Afterwards we eat breakfast together, and my day then begins with sorting through the correspondence, which arrives in considerable quantity.” He said that he accompanied Benedict to morning audiences, followed by lunch together, a “short walk,” and a rest, after which he “[presents] to the Pope documents which require his signature, or his study and approval"^[1].

In January 2007 it emerged that Msgr. Gänswein influenced Donatella Versace's spring fashion collection after she was quoted as saying, “I was thinking of an austere, severe and ethical man. I find Father Georg’s austerity very elegant”^[2].