Claim to Georg Gänswein

BERLIN (AP) — Pope Francis has appointed the secretary of the late Benedict XVI, who was sent back to his native Germany without a new assignment after disagreements with the current pontiff, as the Vatican’s diplomatic representative to the Baltic states.

The Vatican announced in its daily bulletin on Monday that Archbishop Georg Gänswein has been appointed papal nuncio to Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, countries Francis visited in 2018.

Francis last year removed Archbishop Gänswein from his Vatican post and ordered him to return to his home diocese of Freiburg, Germany.

The Freiburg archdiocese said last summer it would not give Gänswein a permanent position, but that he would lead regular services at the city’s cathedral and have “individual assignments” such as confirmations.

His ouster followed a highly public dispute that culminated in Gänswein’s autobiography, which was highly critical of Francis. Speculation about Gänswein’s fate increased following Benedict’s death in late 2022, and deepened a week later when Gänswein published his memoirs under the title “Nothing But the Truth: My Life Beside Pope Benedict XVI.”

In the book, Gänswein details his life in Benedict’s service, but also tells how he was prefect of the papal household under Francis. He revealed palace intrigues, took revenge on others and painted a bad picture of Francis, contradicting the idea that the coexistence of two popes, one active and one retired, was a joyful one.

Gänswein, 67, stepped down as prefect of the papal household in 2020.