I've been searching German sites for the past two days to look for the interview on which Ambrogetti based this story, in order to translate it in full, if possible, but to no avail (though I did turn up quite a few articles of the German media reaction to the now-'notorious' Vanity Fair cover photo of Georg Gaenswein). Perhaps I am just an inept Net trawler, but how can you not turn up anything as specific as the search term "BILD AM SONNTAG 20 JANUAR 2013 - INTERVIEW GEORG GAENSWEIN"? So here is Ms. Ambrogetti's piece for korazym.org which was posted yesterday:
Archbishop Gaenswein is appalled
he is described as '#2 at the Vatican'
by Angela Ambrogetti
January 20, 2012
"Me the number-2 man at the Vatican? Whoever says that does not know the internal workings of the Vatican".
Thus did Archbishop Georg Gaenswein comment to BILD AM SONNTAG (Sunday edition of BILD) a claim made by the Italian edition o0f Vanity Fair in its article accompanying its cover photo of him last week. The article also compares him to the fictional Father Ralph de Bricassart of the 'Thorn Birds' (best-selling Australian novel and popular TV mini-series in the 1980s).
"I was not really familiar with the magazine," the Pope's secretary and newest chief of an office in the Roman Curia tells BILD. "I saw the issue after my attention was called to it by so many people. And my first impression was 'Mamma mia, how is this possible?' I was not asked for an interview nor to have photographs taken. I knew nothing about it beforehand. And my second impression was, 'Well, it's relatively innocuous', sometimes even positive, even if the article contains so many irritating statements. Besides, that cover photograph is old. It was taken about three years ago in Castel Gandolfo when I was interviewed by your newspaper (BILD)."
The cover caption describes you as "the Number 2 man in the Vatican"...
Sheer folly! Anyone who says that does not really know how the Vatican works. The reality is something else completely.
Having just been made an archbishop, and being the secretary of the Pope, and then to be compared with Father Ralph in the 'Thorn Birds' must be paradoxical..
I just take that comparison with humour! The article itself is written with irony. And when it quotes me on what I have previously said about women, I do repeat that I have always had a natural and relaxed attitude with women.
Also, all this media tempest in a teapot does not really create a genuine problem. As long as reality is not distorted. Or to put it in a more positive way, as long as it contributes to stir up curiosity about Christ and his Church. The good God writes straight even on crooked lines. Clearly, man is not the center of all this, certainly not me. Everything should be about the Lord Jesus Christ.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 22/01/2013 00:42]