Archbishop Gänswein finally speaks out about his shabby treatment by a vindictive Pope Francis. "The centrality of Christ has forcefully returned to the forefront of the homilies and words of the universal pastor of the Church."

Vatican, Monsignor Georg Gänswein speaks: "My truth about three Popes"

From Benedict XVI to Leo XIV, passing through Francis. Ratzinger's former secretary and right-hand man, "expelled" from the Vatican by Bergoglio, reveals secrets of the Holy See: from unauthorized recordings to prophecies that later came true.

It's almost surreal to meet Monsignor Georg Gänswein in a small room reserved just for the two of us at Casa Santa Marta, the place where Pope Francis lived—and died—for twelve years. The former secretary and right-hand man of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and then Benedict XVI was misunderstood, badly expelled from the Vatican, and perhaps even a little vilified. In this sort of hotel, renovated under Wojtyla to accommodate cardinals during conclaves, in the final years of the Bergoglian era, Msgr. Gänswein was considered an enemy, and therefore an unwelcome guest. Yet today, the current Apostolic Nuncio to the Baltic Republics is serene and smiling, as if that anguished period following the death of "his Pope" were only a distant memory. So, it's worth getting it out of the way right away and clarifying the last three years.

Your Excellency, is it true, as someone has written, that you and Pope Francis were reconciled before his death?

"Reconciliation is perhaps an exaggerated term. As you know, as soon as Benedict XVI's funeral was over, Pope Francis decided that I should immediately return to my home diocese, Freiburg. However, quite unusually for the secretary of a deceased pontiff, I was not assigned any duties. Even some people who were not exactly friends confided in me that, in fact, the treatment I had received had been excessively harsh. A year later, on December 31, 2023, the first anniversary of Benedict XVI's death, I came to Rome to celebrate a Mass at the altar of the Chair of St. Peter and another near his tomb, in the Vatican Grottoes. It was one of the Memores Domini (the lay nuns who cared for Joseph Ratzinger throughout his pontificate and until his death—Editor's note) who advised me to request an audience with the Pope, but I had decided to stay only two days and it seemed difficult to achieve. However, I thought about it one night and the next day I asked to meet Francis.

The audience was immediately granted, and the four Memores came with me. As soon as we were seated, the Pope asked me: "How are you finding Freiburg?" I replied frankly: "Bad, Your Holiness, after all these years of intense activity, doing nothing hurts my heart, soul, and spirit." Bergoglio told me he would think about it, but to submit a short report on what we had agreed upon to the Secretariat of State. So I did, and after a few months I was informed that Pope Francis had decided to assign me a Nunciature."

An experience, among other things, completely new for you, and in a place—one that encompasses the three Baltic Republics—Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia—that has been particularly delicate in recent times.

"In fact, I did not attend the Ecclesiastical Academy that trains diplomats for the Holy See; my training is canon law. But having served for seven years alongside a pontiff and for another nine as Prefect of the Papal Household, I had the opportunity to meet almost all the great men of the world and to understand something of the dynamics of international diplomacy. In any case, I accepted the challenge with joy and a spirit of service."

What's the atmosphere like in the Baltics, with war just around the corner and Putin's Russia potentially expanding its expansionist ambitions?

"I live in Vilnius, Lithuania, because of the three nations that comprise the Holy See's diplomatic headquarters, it is the main one and, above all, the one with the highest percentage of Catholics, about 80% according to statistics. In Latvia, they are about 25%, while in Estonia, there are only 8,000, less than 1% of the total population. There is palpable concern in the current policies of the three states, certainly a kind of anguish that quells the fateful question: will we be next? However, despite the threats and the frequent closure of some airspaces, all three populations are trying to react with strength and determination, moving forward without thinking of the worst."

You have recently been in Rome for several important events: the presentation of the second volume of unpublished sermons by Benedict XVI as Pope Emeritus, the award ceremony for the annual Ratzinger Prize, and a special audience with Leo XIV. Let's start with the book, whose title "God is the true reality" summarizes Benedict's entire life and thought. How did the idea for this collection come about?

"Joseph Ratzinger always continued to preach, even as Pope Emeritus. He did so at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, the place where he had retreated after his resignation and where the four Memores and I lived with him. Sometimes he did it only in our presence, on other occasions there were guests invited by himself.

Every Sunday, from 2013 to the end of 2018, when his voice had begun to fade more and more, Pope Benedict preached, and perhaps in those years he delivered his most beautiful and meaningful homilies and sermons. With the Memores, we thought it appropriate to record them, but Benedict XVI never knew this."

Are you telling me that you recorded the Pope Emeritus's sermons without his knowledge?

"Exactly. We wanted those wonderful homilies, those moving sermons, not to be lost, and for years, every Sunday, we recorded them. The Memores, with tireless and painstaking work, then gradually transcribed them and transferred them to various files. When Father Federico Lombardi, President of the Ratzinger Foundation, learned of this, he asked me what we wanted to do with them. At that point, I asked him: "Tell me what you want to do with them," meaning, of course, the Foundation. And so, thanks to him and Lorenzo Fazzini, the idea of ​​publishing them was born; the first volume was released last year, and the second one has just come out, which, as you mentioned earlier, encompasses a little of Joseph Ratzinger's entire thought: "God is the true reality."

A few days ago, I reread a lecture by then-Cardinal Ratzinger, given on May 13, 2004, whose title seems prophetic: "The Self-Hatred of the West." In a passage from that lecture, the future pontiff stated that "the West attempts to open itself in a praiseworthy manner to external understanding and values, but it no longer loves itself and now sees only the deplorable and destructive in its own history, no longer capable of perceiving what is great and pure." But even more timely, rereading those words twenty-one years later, is the passage in which the cardinal said: "To survive, Europe needs a new, certainly critical and humble, acceptance of itself," adding that "the multiculturalism that is continually encouraged and fostered cannot exist without points of orientation starting from its own values, and certainly cannot exist without respect for what is sacred." It sounds like a speech delivered today.

"It's true, even today that lesson, which I remember very well, is extremely relevant. You are right when you say that Joseph Ratzinger was often prophetic, and not only in the last decades of his life, but also at the beginning of his career as a university professor, he gave lectures that, when reread today, are strikingly relevant. To give just one example, in 1958 he wrote an article in a German theological journal with the title that in Italian could be translated as "The New Pagans": it is a clear interpretation of the slow and inexorable de-Christianization of Europe, which, reread more than sixty-five years later, seems to describe the current situation. Joseph Ratzinger was a prophetic man throughout his life; he had the gift of anticipating social and cultural changes like few others.

This year, the prize awarded by the Ratzinger Foundation to distinguished figures in the fields of science, history, and culture was awarded to Maestro Riccardo Muti, who then conducted a beautiful concert in the presence of Pope Leo XIV. Benedict XVI loved classical music throughout his life, and under his pontificate there was also a praiseworthy revival of sacred music. What was Joseph Ratzinger's relationship with music?

"From childhood, one could say he breathed Mozart's air deeply. Everyone in his house played a musical instrument, and his brother Georg Ratzinger was a distinguished organist and choir director. Joseph, on the other hand, favored the piano, which he played throughout his life as long as his strength allowed. As for sacred music, Pope Benedict considered it the most suitable, noble, and solemn form and expression to explain and celebrate the mysteries of faith. He valued sacred music just as he believed a certain sacredness of the Liturgy to be fundamental as a sign of love and respect for God.

Indeed, under the pontificate of Benedict XVI, the Liturgy had regained that sense of the mystical, the sacred, and the ancient that later, under his direct successor, was somewhat lost.

"I reveal to you, perhaps for the first time ever, what was one of Pope Benedict's imperative wishes when it was decided that, in the future, we collaborators, Cardinal Müller, and the Ratzinger Foundation should work on the Opera Omnia of his writings: the first volume to be published, he insisted, would be the one dedicated to the Liturgy. Not the one on Theology or the other dedicated to Ecclesiology, but the volume on the Liturgy. This speaks volumes about how much he cared."

I read that you are collecting testimonies and documents to begin the process of beatification of Benedict XVI. Is there any truth in this?

"Some time ago, I began receiving many emails and letters containing testimonies of miraculous events that occurred after praying to and invoking Pope Benedict. Testimonies reaching me from all over the world, very detailed and accurate. I'm keeping them as they arrive, but when I contacted the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, I was told that no canonical process was open and therefore I should gather the material myself. Moreover, I would say wisely, the Church establishes that before a canonical process can be opened, it is necessary to wait at least five years after the death of the potential Blessed, unless, of course, exceptions are expressly decided and at the sole discretion of the Supreme Pontiff.

The latter is the case of John Paul II, and Benedict XVI himself decided to derogate from this rule.

"Yes, Cardinal Stanislaus Dziwisz, Pope Wojtyla's longtime secretary, asked Pope Benedict for this dispensation, and he joyfully granted it. Besides, I myself, throughout the time I lived alongside the then Prefect for the Doctrine of the Faith, witnessed with my own eyes the sanctity of John Paul II.

You lived in Rome for twenty-eight years. Tell me the truth: do you miss the Eternal City?

Very much. After so many years living here, I feel, so to speak, "Romanized." I have so many memories of Rome: things, people, friends that I miss and would like to see more often. Today, my diplomatic commitment, even though it's only a three-hour flight away, doesn't allow me to come as often as I'd like. An Apostolic Nuncio comes to Rome when the Secretariat of State calls or is received in an official audience by the Pontiff.

And with this, you yourself introduce my last question: on Friday morning, you were received by Leo XIV in an official audience as Nuncio of the Holy See. Obviously, I won't ask you about the topics discussed with the Pontiff, but I'd like to hear your impressions of the new Pope.

From the first moment I saw him appear from the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica for his first speech and first Urbi et Orbi Blessing, I had a visual and acoustic impression different from what we had been accustomed to over the past twelve years. Both very positive impressions, obviously. It was immediately clear that something had truly changed. Pope Leo exudes serenity and peace, and in these first seven months of his pontificate, I have noticed that the centrality of Christ has forcefully returned to the forefront of the homilies and words of the universal pastor of the Church.

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