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ROME.- As LA NACION anticipated two months ago, this Monday Pope Francis gave a new assignment to the former private secretary of Benedict XVI, German Archbishop Georg Gänswein. Gänswein will be nuncio (ambassador of the Holy See) in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, as confirmed by the Vatican in a statement.
“The Holy Father has appointed His Excellency Most Reverend Monsignor Georg Gänswein, Titular Archbishop of Urbisaglia and Prefect Emeritus of the Pontifical Household, as Apostolic Nuncio in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia,” says the statement to which LA NACION had access.
The announcement appears to be a gesture of reconciliation after months of tensions between the Argentine Jesuit and the 67-year-old German prelatewho the pope ordered in 2023 to return to his home diocese in Freiburg, an unusual decision interpreted as a punishment.
Despite the complexities in their relationship, Pope Francis has decided to give a new opportunity for Gänswein. In the past, Francis had expressed his displeasure with Gänswein’s book, Nothing but the truth, my life next to Benedict XVIwhich was published a few days after the death of Benedict XVI and brought to light alleged differences between the two popes.
In his recent book-interview, “The Successor, My Memories of Benedict XVI,” published earlier this year, Francis mentioned that the publication of the book was “very sad” and a “lack of nobility and humanity.”
“That on the day of the funeral a book is published that makes me turn and a half, telling things that are not true, it is very sad. Of course, it doesn’t affect me in the sense that it doesn’t condition me. But it did hurt me that Benedicto was used. The book was published on the day of the funeral“I experienced that as a lack of nobility and humanity,” he stated in this book-interview, in which for the first time He told details of his unprecedented, but harmonious, coexistence with his predecessor.
Georg Gansweinwho was Benedict XVI’s right-hand man since 2005 and remained at his side even after his resignation in 2013, He had been without a formal position since Benedict’s death last year. His return to Germany and lack of an active role in the Church had generated speculation about his future.
In fact, last year, when he traveled to Rome to celebrate a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on December 31, the first anniversary of Benedict’s death, Gänswein went to greet Francisco. On that occasion, in an audience, he would have expressed to the Pontiff his willingness to collaborate and his discomfort at being without any position, according to some voices. And this is how the Pope, in what some interpret as a way of forgiving, He would have decided to change the destiny of someone who many thought had already “retired” ahead of time.
Gänswein’s appointment as nuncio to the Baltics comes at a significant time, as both Pope Francis and King Charles III face health problems.
Gänswein, who has been an influential figure in the Vatican, is now tasked with representing the Holy See in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. This new assignment will allow him to continue his service to the Church in a crucial diplomatic role, bringing his vast experience and knowledge to bear in an international context.
Georg Gänswein, known as the “George Clooney” of the Vatican for his appearancehas had an outstanding career and multifaceted. Born in the German Black Forest on July 30, 1956, Gänswein is the eldest of five children. Before entering seminary, he earned a pilot’s license, worked as a mail carrier and was a ski instructor. He was ordained a priest in Freiburg in 1984 and sent to Rome to study canon law, which he later taught at Opus Dei’s Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.
Gänswein was at Joseph Ratzinger’s side since 2003when the then cardinal and holder of the former Holy Office chose him to be his private secretary in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where Don Georg had begun to work in 1996.
April 16, 2005 “Father Giorgio” became the right hand of Benedict XVI, elected as successor of John Paul II. On January 6, 2013, shortly before his clamorous abdication, to reward him for his loyalty, Benedict XVI ordained him archbishop and, weeks before, prefect of the Papal Household, a key position. From that place, in addition to shielding him, he turned him into someone of immense influenceby designating him as the man who decided who could have an official audience with the then pope.
Out of respect for Benedict, Francisco decided to leave Gänswein in that roleuntil January 2020 asked him to take a leave when a storm broke out over the publication of a book in defense of celibacy written theoretically in four hands by Ratzinger and the ultra-conservative African cardinal Robert Sarah.
Ratzinger asked that his signature be removed from that work and Gänswein was suspected of having been behind an operation that the ultra-conservative wing had tried to launch.by using the elderly and frail pope emeritus.
“I was forced to ask Benedicto’s secretary to request a ‘voluntary leave’maintaining the position of prefect of the Pontifical Household and also the salary,” Francis recalled in his last book-interview.
Despite this stormy past, now another stage will begin. Although versions of a possible position as nuncio for Gänswein had already spread in the past, this new opportunity is an unexpected decision, but totally in accordance with that mercy, openness of heart and lack of rigidity preached by the first Jesuit pope since the beginning of his pontificate.
AP and AFP Agencies
THE NATION
