In Recent Interview Pope Francis Defends Pope St. John Paul II - Plans Visit to Argentina - Mentions that Benedict XVI's Secretary Gänswein Should Return to Germany

Pope Francis recently granted an interview with the Argentinian newspaper La Nación. In it the pope revealed his plans to visit his native Argentina in 2024. In the interview with the Vatican journalist Elisabetta Piqué, he recalled that he has been out of the country for ten years and does not have any political party affiliations.

Pope Francis revealed that in the "Orlandi case," which regained notoriety after a recent documentary broadcast by Netflix, “John Paul II was a saint in life and is now formally so after death. No one can honestly doubt the decency of Pope Wojtyla." 

Pope Francis said of  Benedict XVI, “I always had only good advice and permanent help from him. We saw each other much more than is known, especially in recent times when it was evident that his health was irreparably deteriorating.”

In the interview, while speaking of Benedict XVI, the pope proposed to his former private secretary, the once-powerful German archbishop Georg Gänswein, that he return to his diocese in Germany. Gänswein had written a memoir about his relationship with the dead Pope (“Nothing but the truth”, also published in Argentina) while awaiting the death of the former pontiff. Gänswein's book, which went on sale a few days after Benedict XVI's death, refers to the moment when Francis actually, though not explicitly, removed him as prefect of the Papal Household after it was established that he had incorporated the name of pope emeritus Ratzinger as co-author of a book with the ultra-conservative Cardinal Robert Sarah.

  

Source: https://www.lanacion.com.ar/politica/el-papa-francisco-proyecta-venir-a-la-argentina-durante-2024-nid23042023/