In late June, Pope Francis appointed German Archbishop Georg Gänswein as Apostolic Nuncio to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The news received a lot of attention because of the apparent strife between the current head of the Catholic Church and the former secretary of Pope Benedict XVI, and the priest’s involvement in cases of sexual abuse in the Church. Appointing this priest of colourful reputation to Vilnius is seen as a sign of forgiveness by Pope Francis.
Gänswein is seemingly delighted to have been entrusted with a mission abroad again, after a career break that, in his eyes, amounted to a punishment and exile. Archbishop Gänswein, 67, of German origin, has served as the titular Archbishop of Urbassalia, as Prefect Emeritus of the Pontifical Household, and for many years as private secretary to Pope Benedict XVI. Tensions at the Vatican broke into the open when Pope Francis removed the German from his position as Prefect of the Papal Household in 2020.
The dispute was further exacerbated when, shortly after Benedict XVI’s death, Gänswein published a bestselling book entitled Nothing but the Truth: My Life Beside Pope Benedict XVI. In it, the author wrote that the historically unprecedented years of cohabitation between the Pope Emeritus and the incumbent Pope had caused friction. He also expressed some frustration with the pontiff and published several private letters.
In his own recent book The Successor, Pope Francis criticised Gänswein for his haste to p.