Pope Benedict XVI's personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, is featuring on the cover of the next issue of the glitzy Italian edition of Vanity Fair.

"Padre Georg - being beautiful is not a sin," says the title line, using a direct quote from the prelate nicknamed "Gorgeous George" by the Italian media. "From the ‘George Clooney of St Peter's' to number two in the Vatican: after his ordination as bishop, an up-close profile of a unique Monsignor," reads the subtitle.

The Italian weekly, one of three international editions inspired by the more famous and literary US prototype, has devoted six pages to its profile of the 54-year-old prelate. The author of the profile is Vatican expert Andrea Tornielli, of the Turin-based La Stampa newspaper, who notes that Georg "is now the most influential éminence grise close to the Pope."

Cover: CNS/Vanity Fair press office via Reuters