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It’s always been a challenge to read the Vatican tea leaves in the idiosyncratic pontificate of Francis, the first Jesuit pope in the history of the Catholic Church and the first Roman Pontiff in more than a century who had never before worked or lived in Rome.
But in the last several months it’s basically become a guessing game about what’s going on in the Vatican because even people who are supposed to be in the know — that is, the pope’s top aides in the Roman Curia — are pretty much in the dark about what their boss is up to or planning to do next.
The latest proof came during a recent interview with the Mexican television network “Univision” when Francis was asked about whether clear protocols need to be established for when a pope resigns the papacy.
He said “history will help resolve” the issue. And while he praised Benedict XVI for the way the former pope has lived out his own retirement, Francis added that “things should be delineated better and explained better” in the future.
The pope’s top canonical advisors must have been surprised to hear that. Just last May the secretary for the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, Spanish Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, insisted that setting such protocols “is not a necessity”.
He argued that any legislation in this regard could simply be changed or eliminated by a future pope.
The interviews
That July 11 interview with Univision was the third that Pope Francis had given to a mainstream secular media outlet, and the second in Spanish, over the course of about three weeks.
The first was on June 20 when he sat down for a video-taped conversation with the president of the Argentine news agency Télam.
This high-ranking media official must not have been aware that the pope plays a significant role in Church and Vatican affairs, many of which are marked by extreme crisis right now. What else can explain why all but one of her questions pertained solely to world events and political issues?
The other interview, also video-recorded, was conducted on July 2 in Italian by the Reuters news agency.
Veteran reporter Phil Pullella spoke with Francis — as he did in a previous interview in 2018 — on a wide range of topics. Excerpts of the pope’s answers were released thematically over the course of five days.
The Reuters and Univision interviews addressed a number of similar topics, particularly the pope’s health and speculation that he might resign, among other things.
An additional element that they have in common is that the journalists who conducted the interviews (Pullella for Reuters and Valentina Alazraki for Univision) are respectively a papal knight and papal dame.
Francis granted them the honorific titles last November, calling them the “deans” of the Vatican press corps.
The pope shuns his own communications department
And what about his own communications team, Vatican Media? The Holy See spends more money annually on this department than on all its nunciatures around the world. And, yet, Francis does not avail himself of its services.
He ordered a reform of that sector and a consolidation of its various branches shortly after his election as pope. It did not go smoothly and some of the people he entrusted with overseeing the task — including the Milan priest at the head of the project — fell by the wayside.
When Francis made a sort of “apostolic visit” to the Dicastery for Communication in May 2021 he did not offer much praise or encouragement. It was more like a scolding.
“How many people listen to (Vatican) Radio?” he asked. “How many people read L’Osservatore Romano?”
There would obviously be a whole lot more listeners and readers if people knew that when the pope gives exclusive interviews he gives them to Vatican Media.
But Francis does not even inform the heads of the various branches of the communications department — including the Holy See Press Office — when he decides to give interviews with an outside source. They find out only afterwards.
Who knows why?
Going it alone
Francis is the pope that has brought synodality to nearly every structure of the Church and loves to explain the concept as all the People of God “walking together”. But when it comes to governing, certainly in the last several months, the pope seems to be more and more walking alone.
He is not coordinating his activities with his Vatican aides. He caught almost everyone by surprise on March 19 when he abruptly ordered the publication of his apostolic constitution on the reformed Roman Curia, Praedicate Evangelium.
The text had not yet been properly edited or translated in various languages. But it suddenly appeared on a Saturday afternoon — and an Italian public holiday to boot — full of mistakes and not even properly formatted.
Francis again surprised his closest aides on May 29 when he announced plans for a consistory in late August to create new cardinals immediately followed by a two-day summit of all the men in the red-hatted college.
It is understood that he informed only two officials of the consistory — that was the day before the announcement. It is unclear who he consulted, if anyone, about the men who will be the new cardinals.
Some of the names on the list have raised eyebrows to say the least. And one of them, a Belgian bishop over the age of 80, eventually asked to be taken off the list because of his mishandling of several sex abuse cases.
A pope who is acting like a monarch?
Many in the more progressive or left-leaning sectors of the secular media give extremely positive coverage to Pope Francis. Catholics should be pleased that they do.
But the fondness these media folks have for him seems to be based on their assessment of him as an anti-institutional figure, a “liberal”, and maverick that loves to upend the status quo.
And, indeed, those who identify as reform-minded Catholics or Vatican II types would share that view in some ways.
They (we) would also say that Francis is a truly evangelical pope who has reconnected the Church to the vision and ethos of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) after a long period of growing restorationism.
But no man is perfect and even popes have their flaws. That should not detract from the qualities that somehow make them even more endearing because of — not despite — their human imperfections.
Meanwhile, Francis’ greatest critics — Church traditionalists — have disparaged him for acting like a dictator or absolute monarch.
They note that he has made more changes unilaterally and “on his own initiative” — i.e. “motu proprio” — than any pope before him. In fact, he’s issued 50 apostolic letters “moto proprio” in less than ten years in office, that is more than John Paul II did in nearly 27 years.
This is his right as Bishop of Rome.
Exercising power
“In virtue of his office, he enjoys supreme, full, immediate and universal power in the Church, which he can always freely exercise,” the Code of Canon Law states unequivocally (Can. 331).
And Francis has shown he is not afraid to exercise this power. Is he wrong to do so?
Yes, he’s been bold to use this power “motu proprio”, though probably not as much as some reform-minded Catholics would like.
Those who are not fans of the Jesuit pope think he’s used it too much. But they should look on the bright side.
Father Reginald Foster, the brilliant American Carmelite who was chief Latinist at the Vatican Secretariat of State for many years, once told me: “If I were pope, on Day One I’d sign 100 decrees to reform the Church. And on Day Two I’d resign.”
Lucky for the Trads, Francis is a Jesuit, not a maverick Carmelite.
- Robert Mickens is Editor in Chief of La Croix International.
- First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.
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