Word: gã
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...United States next week, you may notice that he doesn't have the same onstage flair as his predecessor, John Paul II. But you may also begin to notice a very handsome man of the cloth never far from the pontiff's side. That would be Monsignor Georg G??nswein, the Pope's personal secretary, responsible for everything from deciding who gets to see Benedict, to keeping His Holiness on schedule, to discreetly handing him his papal reading glasses just before a homily or other public discourse. While he is the paradigm of discretion, others have taken liberties with...
Italians have taken notice of G??nswein, and nicknamed him "Bel Giorgio," which Americans might translate as: Gorgeous George. Paparazzi have snapped photos of him playing tennis in his tennis whites, while the Roman and Bavarian press eagerly report his bravura on the ski slopes and appearances at evening Church functions. Nevertheless, despite the glamour imposed on him by the celebrity press, the tall, athletic and dirty-blond Monsignor in his clerical black, concentrates on his pivotal but quiet job choreographing papal appearances. And that is how Americans will see him, in a supporting role buoyed by his scene-stealing...
Like the pontiff, G??nswein is Bavarian by birth and an academic by training, with a doctorate in canon law. His impressive intellectual credentials notwithstanding, G??nswein is devoted to the administrative and ceremonial requirements of his current job. Though he tends to keep a low profile, the 51-year-old prelate did tell one Catholic newspaper last year a bit about a typical day in the papal apartment: he and the Pope begin with breakfast, often with one or two other staffers, and G??nswein prepares documents for the papal signature and lays out the list of upcoming appointments...
...person, G??nswein is affable and quick-witted - though always off-the-record - when encountering members of the Vatican press corps. In 1996, he began working in the key Vatican office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. He has also worked as a Professor of Canon Law at Rome's Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, which is run by Opus Dei, though G??nswein is not a member...
...when Ratzinger's longtime personal secretary, Monsignor Josef Clemens, was appointed to a top position in another Vatican office, G??nswein stepped into the role of Ratzinger's right-hand man. It was not expected to be a particularly long assignment, as the Cardinal planned to return to his private studies in Germany after the conclusion of the papacy of the ailing John Paul II. Of course, fate had other plans, and when Ratzinger became Benedict XVI, G??nswein moved with him across St. Peter's Square to the office next to the new pontiff in the Apostolic Palace...