Pope Francis orders Pope Benedict ex-aide to leave Vatican

Pope Francis has ordered Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, the private secretary and long-time aide of the late Pope Benedict, to return to his native Germany by the end of the month without any new assignment, the Vatican said on Thursday.

A Vatican statement put an end speculation about what role Gaenswein, a powerful figure in the Vatican for more than a decade before Francis sidelined him after a personal falling out, would have in the Church.

Former Pope Benedict died on Dec. 31, nearly a decade after he resigned in 2013, the first pontiff to do so in 600 years.