Benedict XVI’s former secretary in Rome: reconciliation with Francis, traditional Mass, and canonization of Joseph Ratzinger

(ZENIT News / Rome, 12.17.2025).- Rome offered an unusual convergence of personal history, ecclesial memory, and unresolved debates during a discreet December visit by Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the former private secretary of Benedict XVI and now apostolic nuncio to Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. His brief stay at the Vatican, during the second week of December 2025, unfolded quietly but carried unmistakable symbolic weight.

At the heart of the visit was a private audience with Pope Leo XIV, granted only days after Gänswein publicly expressed his hope that the Church would one day open the cause for the beatification of Benedict XVI. No official details of the conversation were released, but its timing alone signaled a moment of attentiveness by the new pontificate toward figures closely associated with Benedict’s legacy.

The weekend also placed Gänswein within a broader cultural and spiritual setting. He attended the Vatican’s traditional Christmas Concert in the Paul VI Hall alongside Father Federico Lombardi, president of the Ratzinger Foundation and longtime Vatican spokesman. The evening was led by maestro Riccardo Muti, who received the Ratzinger Prize directly from Pope Leo XIV. In presenting the award, the Pope recalled Muti’s long-standing relationship with Benedict XVI, framing the honor as a continuation of a dialogue between faith and culture oriented toward harmony and the common good.

That continuity was underlined the following days in a more explicitly liturgical key. As the third anniversary of Benedict XVI’s death approached, Gänswein presided over a Mass in the Choir Chapel of St. Peter’s Basilica, with Muti among those present. Afterward, they prayed together at the tomb of the German Pope, a gesture that quietly wove together personal loyalty, artistic friendship, and ecclesial remembrance.

Beyond ceremonial moments, Gänswein’s recent comments have reopened chapters many assumed were closed. Speaking to journalists, he confirmed that he had reconciled with Pope Francis before the latter’s death, following a private audience in November 2024. According to Gänswein, that meeting allowed unresolved matters to be clarified and included a personal request for forgiveness. He described the encounter as a genuine reconciliation, expressing gratitude that the relationship ended in peace.

The acknowledgment carries particular resonance given the strain that followed the publication of the book Nothing but the Truth in early 2023, released shortly after Benedict XVI’s funeral. The volume, which included criticism of Francis and excerpts from private correspondence, was widely seen as a rupture. Gänswein has since suggested that the wounds caused by that episode were ultimately healed through direct and frank dialogue.

The book itself continues to echo in discussions, especially through its reflections on what Benedict XVI identified as a defining challenge of the modern era: religious illiteracy and the eclipse of God from public consciousness. Renewal, Benedict argued, begins not with structural reforms but with the recovery of the knowledge of God. In the book’s foreword, Gänswein portrayed Benedict as a man shaped by Scripture, reading it not as a detached scholar but as a believer who allowed the biblical text to question him throughout his life.

At the same time, Gänswein has remained a prominent voice in debates over the liturgy. In a recent interview with German Catholic television, he urged Pope Leo XIV to reconsider the restrictions imposed on the Traditional Latin Mass and to return to the framework established by Benedict XVI in Summorum Pontificum. For Gänswein, that legislation fostered unity and liturgical peace, recognizing that a form of worship which nourished the Church for centuries cannot suddenly be treated as obsolete or harmful.

His intervention places him alongside several senior churchmen who have, since Leo XIV’s election, expressed hope for a reassessment of Traditionis Custodes. Cardinals Raymond Burke, Robert Sarah, and Kurt Koch have all publicly indicated that they see value in restoring Benedict XVI’s approach, arguing that continuity rather than prohibition offers a more convincing path toward unity within the Roman Rite.

Taken together, Gänswein’s Roman weekend and his recent statements sketch a portrait of a figure still closely linked to Benedict XVI’s theological and liturgical vision, yet now operating within a changed ecclesial landscape. His reconciliation with Pope Francis, his dialogue with Pope Leo XIV, and his renewed interventions on the liturgy suggest not a return to old conflicts, but an attempt to integrate memory, continuity, and hope at a moment when the Church is recalibrating its future.

Thank you for reading our content. If you would like to receive ZENIT’s daily e-mail news, you can subscribe for free through this link.