Pope appoints Benedict XVI's confidant as Baltic envoy

Pope Francis on Monday named a confidant of his predecessor who wrote a tell-all book detailing tensions between Francis and Benedict XVI as Vatican ambassador to the Baltic states.

The nomination is likely to be seen as a sign of appeasement after months of strains between Pope Francis and Gaenswein, a German archbishop who served as private secretary to Benedict XVI.

"The Holy Father has named Georg Gaenswein...  as apostolic nuncio to Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia," the Vatican said.

Benedict in 2013 became the first pope since the Middle Ages to step down. He lived in the grounds of the Vatican until his death on December 31, 2022, aged 95.

Just one week after the funeral, Gaenswein released a memoir revealing details of Benedict's relationship with Francis, who took over as head of the Catholic Church in March 2013.

These details included concerns expressed by the conservative Benedict at some of the changes made by his liberal Argentine successor, notably the decision to restrict the use of the Latin mass.

Last year, Pope Francis sent Gaenswein back to his home diocese of Freiburg in southwest Germany, in what was widely seen as a punishment.