(LifeSiteNews) — Archbishop Georg Gänswein reported that he reconciled with Pope Francis before the latter’s death and expressed hope for a future beatification of Pope Benedict XVI.

During a Thursday presentation of the book God Is the True Reality, Gänswein stated that he had asked Pope Francis for forgiveness during the last audience granted to him on January 3, 2024, and that he subsequently prayed at the Pontiff’s tomb.

Gänswein – current Apostolic Nuncio to the Baltic States and former personal secretary to Benedict XVI – also said he hoped for the opening of a future beatification process for Joseph Ratzinger, while urging respect for the usual timeframe set by ecclesial practice.

“Francis? It was not always easy, but before his death, when I was at the last audience, I apologized to him. I reconciled with him,” he said.

The book presented by Gänswein, Dio è la vera realtà, gathers unpublished homilies delivered by Benedict XVI between 2005 and 2017, including those from the years spent at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery after his renunciation of the Petrine ministry. The archbishop explained that the volume constitutes “the last testimony we have of him and of his voice,” as introduced by Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi.

Gänswein, sent last year by Pope Francis as nuncio to the Baltic States after a period without assignments in the Diocese of Freiburg, also recalled the visit he made in June 2025 to Francis’s tomb in the Basilica of St. Mary Major: “I was accompanied by the basilica’s archpriest, Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas. I knelt before Francis’s tomb and prayed, certainly. The Pope is the Pope, the successor of Peter.”

READ: Archbishop Gänswein urges Pope Leo to end Latin Mass restrictions, restore Summorum Pontificum

Asked about the prospects for a future beatification cause of Benedict XVI, Gänswein said he considers there to be a widespread reputation for holiness surrounding the German Pope, though without embracing slogans or hastiness: “Let some years pass first; the Church is very wise, we know that.”

He added that he had perceived this reputation during the many years spent alongside Ratzinger: “I saw how he lived, how he faced great problems and always sought a response rooted in faith. And then, his faith in Providence … All this was part of his spiritual DNA.” He also said he receives “emails from all over the world” from readers who have found in the words of the Pope Emeritus “a light and a help” for their faith.

Gänswein also addressed his new diplomatic assignment in the Baltic States, describing the geopolitical situation as “very complex,” in a context where the memory of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 remains vivid among the population.

On December 12, Pope Leo XIV received the former secretary of Pope Benedict XVI in a private audience. As reported by Il Tempo, it was “a cordial and above all serene meeting, with the joy of returning, in a certain sense, home.” Gänswein had traveled to Rome for the awarding of the Ratzinger Prize, which this year went to Italian conductor Riccardo Muti. Leo XIV himself was present at the ceremony.

Among the topics addressed during the book presentation was the question of the liturgy. Gänswein recalled that Benedict XVI in 2007 had granted broad permission to celebrate according to the 1962 Missal, while his successor later introduced restrictions. The archbishop stated: “Abusus non tollit usum, the fact that there have been abuses is not a reason to forbid the Tridentine Mass,” arguing that the 2007 decision had “brought liturgical peace within the universal Church” and that this peace had been “damaged” by the subsequent measures.

The relationship between Gänswein and Pope Francis had gone through complex periods, rendered particularly evident in the aftermath of Benedict XVI’s death on December 31, 2022.

On July 1, 2023, the archbishop returned to the Diocese of Freiburg without assignments, at Francis’s direction. On January 3, 2024, their first official meeting took place after his return to Germany. Pope Francis received Gänswein in the Vatican together with the four Memores Domini who had assisted Benedict XVI until his death in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery. The audience was presumed to be understood chiefly as a moment of shared remembrance of Ratzinger, without hints at new assignments.

On June 24, 2024, after about a year without assignments, Pope Francis sent Gänswein as Apostolic Nuncio to the Baltic States, effectively closing the period of uncertainty following the death of the Pope Emeritus. The reconciliation mentioned by the archbishop therefore takes place within the setting of the final personal audience of 2024, followed by the visit to the Argentine Pope’s tomb in June 2025.