Pope Francis, the Improvisational Pontiff

National Catholic Register, 05 January 2021

The Holy Father’s style was best exemplified in 2020 by eight key occasions.

Pope Francis has a fondness for improvisation, both in terms of personal style and pastoral governance. A Vatican documentary on the private, often surprise, visits of Pope Francis brings those improvisations to the fore. Yet 2020 as a whole highlighted that improvisational style in matters of governance, too.

For several years Pope Francis has made monthly Friday visits to exemplify the corporal works of mercy. These visits, characterized as “strictly private” and hence not covered by the press corps, nonetheless included a Vatican television crew. That footage has now been made into a documentary film entitled Only Together and had its premiere Jan. 4.

The improvised visits, in which people answered their doors only to find the Supreme Pontiff on the other side, included moving moments showing the pastoral heart of Pope Francis. 

The improvisational style is not only for private visits. The past year also included that style at work on eight key occasions in 2020. 

A Prefect Disappeared

January 2020 occasioned a controversy about a book jointly authored by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Cardinal Robert Sarah — or perhaps a Sarah book to which Benedict made a contribution. That was the dispute. The controversy evidently displeased Pope Francis, who fired Archbishop Georg Ganswein, the prefect of the papal household. Since 2013, Archbishop Ganswein had been prefect, as well as serving as the private secretary for Benedict XVI. 

Firings are not unusual, by themselves, but Archbishop Ganswein’s was a remarkable improvisation. He is still, formally, the prefect. He still has the job, but all his prefecture duties were reassigned and he never appeared again in the prefect’s position at papal audiences. 

In a year-end interview, Archbishop Ganswein finally admitted that his “reassignment” had been “painful” but not a “punishment.” That fine distinction is required by the novel circumstance of being keeping a position but being fired from the job.

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