The former private secretary of Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Ganswein has been appointed as the pope’s Ambassador to the Baltic countries. He will be nuncio to Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.
After months of rumours on where he would be sent, the Vatican has made it official with this statement.
Archbishop Ganswein was prefect of the Pontifical Household from 2012 officially until February 2023. The former secretary was known to have devoted himself entirely to Benedict XVI, which he recounts in his book.
According to some this made the relationship between the archbishop and Pope Francis complicated, as the book criticises the pope which he found to be a “painful gesture.”
Six months after the death of Benedict XVI, Ganswein’s time at the Vatican came to an end. The Holy See announced that he would return on 1 July, 2023, to his home diocese in Germany.
Almost a year has passed and now Ganswein will move to northern Europe, where he will be the diplomatic nuncio in a post that has been vacant since 11 March.