OfGian Guido Vecchi
There is no official announcement yet, but the Baltic seat (strategic after the start of the war in Ukraine) has been vacant for a month and also covers Estonia and Latvia
VATICAN CITY In the global network of Vatican diplomacy there is a delicate node that has remained open for a few weeks, a nunciature in a strategic positionespecially in these times, to which Pope Francis could assign Archbishop Georg Gänswein: the Baltic countries, or the nunciature of Vilnius, Lithuania, which also covers the neighbors Estonia and Latvia.
The nuncio in the three countries, until a month ago, was the archbishop Petar Rajič, Canadian of Bosnian-Croatian origins, appointed on 11 March by the Pope as ambassador of the Holy See for Italy and San Marino. Since the Baltic nunciature is vacant. At the moment there is nothing official yetbut Oltretevere explains itself to Courier that Francesco was thinking of Gänswein.
For weeks there has been talk in the Vatican about the appointment of Benedict XVI’s historic secretary as nuncio. Bergoglio decided to move on, despite everything. In January last year, the publication of Gänswein’s book «Nothing but the truth», just after Ratzinger’s funeral, was the last of the incidents that had already convinced the Pope for three years to set aside the prefect of the Papal Householdsince 2020 I have formally remained so.
The assignment then ended on February 28, 2023, and at the beginning of the summer Francis sent Gänswein back to his German diocese of origin, in Freiburg, without any role. “I am without duties and without work, and this is bad”, explained the archbishop to Courier at the end of December, when he returned to Rome to celebrate a memorial mass in the Vatican Grottoes one year after the death of Benedict XVI. On that occasion, as revealed by the Argentine newspaper The Nationwas received in audience by Bergoglio and he «communicated his opinion to the Pontiff willingness to collaborate and his discomfort at the absence of an assignment.” Meanwhile, in Freiburg, the days passed without him being able to do anything, or almost nothing. It is said that his only commitment is one Mass celebrated at 7 in the morning, every Tuesday, for the canons. Then that’s it.
Again in an interview book published in Spain at the beginning of April, «El sucesor», the Pope returned to deplore the publication of Gaenswein’s book«I experienced it like a lack of nobility and humanity». But already in the previous weeks, it is said, she was thinking about a diplomatic assignment, also to close a matter that was becoming embarrassing for everyone.
Archbishop Gänswein, moreover, has accumulated a long experience ever since Benedict XVI chose him as prefect of the Papal Household, an important role in the Curia, the man who is always close to the Pope and welcomes the personalities who are received in the Apostolic Palace. Francis had kept him in officeat least until 2020. In those years, for example, it was Gänswein who welcomed and accompanied three times Vladimir Putinwho speaks excellent German, in the audiences the Russian president had with Francis on November 25, 2013, June 10, 2015 and July 4, 2019, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine made contacts more difficult.
The nunciature in the Baltic countries, since then, has become even more strategic, from a diplomatic point of view. Already before the war, during his trip in September 2018, Francis had said in Vilnius: «Looking at the world scenario in which we live, where voices are growing that sow division and opposition – often exploiting insecurity and conflicts – or that proclaim that the only possible way of ensure safety and the subsistence of one culture lies in trying to eliminate, erase or expel the others, you Lithuanians have your own original word to contribute: “Hosting differences”. Through dialogue, openness and understanding they can transform themselves into bridge of union between Eastern and Western Europe».
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April 13, 2024
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