Vatican Prelate Gänswein is asked about Novus Ordo Watch Post

Novus Ordo Watch in the Vatican

Vatican Prelate Gänswein is asked about a Novus Ordo Watch Post

You’ve probably heard of him before. He is Francis’ so-called “Prefect of the Papal Household”. He is Benedict XVI’s private secretary. He is constantly around either Francis or Benedict. In other words, he’s a really important chap in Vatican City. He hails from Freiburg, Germany. His name is “Archbishop” Georg Gänswein.

Like many other celebrities, Ganswein has a fan page on Facebook. This page is not maintained by him and not endorsed by him; it is simply a page about him and maintained by two of his devotees who refer to themselves by the names of “Pinky” and “Michele”. The page currently has roughly 33,000 followers. Here is a link to it:

• Arzobispo Georg Gänswein Prefecto de la Casa Pontificia (Facebook)

On June 5, 2017 the administrator of the page shared a link to a Novus Ordo Watch post that exposed the Superior General of the Jesuits, “Fr.” Arturo Sosa, as a heretic who denies that Satan is real (Sosa has since attempted some damage control).

Here is a screenshot of the post sharing the Novus Ordo Watch story as it appeared on the Ganswein fan page (it has since been removed):

Since the fan page uses Ganswein’s official coat-of-arms and its title is “Archbishop Georg Gänswein Prefect of the Papal Household”, one can easily get the impression that this is Ganswein’s own page and that it is Francis’ and Benedict’s right-hand man himself who posts content there. Since the Novus Ordo Watch story that was shared accused the chief Jesuit of heresy, it is easy to understand why some people took this to mean that Ganswein himself was accusing Sosa of heresy.

For this reason, the German Novus Ordo journalist Paul Badde saw a need to contact the Prefect of the “Papal” Household for a mini interview to clarify the matter. The following is a translation of the story that appeared on the web site of CNA Deutsch, the German branch of Catholic News Agency:

There has been quite a stir following a report according to which Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Prefect of the Papal Household and secretary of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, has accused the Jesuit superior Fr. Arturo Sosa of heresy on Facebook. But what is behind this? Paul Badde spoke with the German prelate.

CNA: Your Grace, on your Facebook page you shared an article in which Fr. Arturo Marcelino Sosa Abascal S.J., the Superior General of the allegedly “apostate” Jesuits, is accused of “heresy” for denying the existence of the devil.

Georg Gänswein: I do not maintain a Facebook page or a Twitter account, nor do I write anything there.

CNA: And yet you have 30,000 “followers” on Facebook?

GG (laughs): Only 30,000?

CNA: You laugh. But what is your take on the fact that this page uses your original episcopal coat-of-arms and your correct title in Spanish?

GG: What am I supposed to do besides laugh [about it]? This is a fake coat-of-arms on a fake page.

CNA: Who or what is behind this?

GG: How would I know? Perhaps a fake person? This is — truly — fake news. All I know is that this is the trademark of someone who wants to divide and confuse. In any case, this has nothing to do with me.

CNA: And what action are you going to take against this?

GG (laughs again): I will use laughter! At least until I have 3 million followers. Until then, I will only use laughter — and the wisdom of the old Viennese: We’re not even going to ignore this*! [*This funny idiom is meant to express that something is considered to be so insignificant that it does not even merit being ignored.]

(Paul Badde, “Von wegen Häresie-Vorwurf: Erzbischof Gänswein über falsche Facebook-Meldung”, CNA Deutsch, June 7, 2017; our translation.)

Not surprisingly, Ganswein’s main focus was on pointing out that the Facebook page that bears his name is actually not his. Neither he nor the journalist considered the much more important question of whether the charge of heresy against the Jesuit superior is justified or not. Like clockwork, Ganswein instead denounced our post exposing Sosa’s heretical depravity as coming from someone who wants to “divide” and “confuse”. Of course it’s always easier to shoot the messenger than to deal with such an inconvenient message. Alas, we live in a world in which it is wrong to “divide” (cf. Mt 10:34-37), but uttering heresy is no big deal. Go figure!

Nevertheless, when all is said and done, what has happened here is actually quite positive. Think about it: Circumstances have forced the “Pope’s” right-hand man in the Vatican to address the fact that one of his Facebook fan pages posted a story from a sedevacantist web site exposing the Jesuit Superior General as a heretic! That is the biggest story here.

Perhaps our video spoof of Francis’ reaction to Vatican employees reading Novus Ordo Watch is closer to reality than we all thought:

Meanwhile, the administrators of the Ganswein Facebook fan page, clearly unhappy with the bad publicity they got, posted the following notice, in which they accuse journalist Badde of ridiculing them, when it was in fact Ganswein who dismissed them as a “fake page”:

To all the pages dedicated to the Archbishop that have reported with great joy a captious interview by Paul Badde, I say: This page is not fake, it does not contain either fake news or fake pictures. It is managed by two administrators, and the information [in the About section] specifies that the Archbishop does not write here. The “corpus delicti” news [article about Sosa] appeared and was shared [by people] all over the place, so it was not made up or written by the administrators. However, since Dr. Badde, having ridiculed the page, does not reply to my repeated pleas for clarification, to which I have a right, I invite everyone to just put this matter to rest. It seems to me that I have sufficiently clarified our position and the purpose of this page. I know that other pages love to find our faults because of the number of users that follow us. Just deal with it and leave others alone. I conclude by citing Dante: Let us not speak of them, but look, and pass on.

Pinky e Michele, the only administrators responsible for this page

(Post on Facebook page Arzobispo Georg Gänswein Prefecto de la Casa Pontificia, June 10, 2017; our translation.)

So, what conclusion do we draw from all this?

Novus Ordo Watch is having more and more of an impact. This means that it is getting more and more difficult for the Modernists, even in the highest echelons of Vatican City, to ignore Sedevacantism. Sedevacantism is growing, and this is a problem not only for the Vatican II Sect proper, but also for its various traditionalist offshoots that constitute a false opposition, especially the Society of St. Pius X (there’s a reason they published a 700-page book against Sedevacantism last year). Unlike the various indult communities or the SSPX, the Roman Modernists have no power whatsoever over Sedevacantists, nor can they entice us with offers of “full communion” or “regularization”.

So you can easily see, ladies and gentlemen, that supporting Novus Ordo Watch is a really good idea. Your help, whether financial or otherwise, does bear fruit. Just imagine how much more of an impact we could have in the future if enough people join the cause!

Before we close, we would like to express our thanks to the journalist, Paul Badde, for confronting Mr. Ganswein with our story about the Jesuit superior’s heresy. It’s too bad that the Vatican’s top “papal” assistant decided to laugh it off, but it’s not surprising. After all, Ganswein is no stranger to heresy himself, as we have pointed out on this web site before.

In an interview published on Dec. 25, 2016 Ganswein claimed that the existence of God cannot be proved from reason. That is heresy against the infallible teaching of the First Vatican Council: “If anyone shall have said that the one true God, our Creator and our Lord, cannot be known with certitude by those things which have been made, by the natural light of human reason: let him be anathema” (Dogmatic Constitution Dei Filius; Denz. 1806). This heresy, known as Fideism, is extremely popular among Novus Ordos. More details on this can be found in our post covering the story:

• Heresy: “Abp.” Ganswein says “No Proof” God exists

In a sense, then, one can say — oh, the irony! — that whereas Sosa denies the existence of the devil, Ganswein denies the existence of God.

Maybe Paul Badde can ask Mr. Ganswein about that in the next interview.

Image sources: shutterstock.com / facebook.com (screenshot)
Licenses: paid / fair use