“You Are Not Alone”: The Calculated Confidences of Pope Francis

The press characterized Sergio Rubin and Francesca Ambrogetti as “friends of the Pope.” Also, their book presents itself in a tone of private confidence: Pope Francis speaks informally, in particular of the motive for his election to the position of Supreme Pontiff, which was in 2013.

In the summer of 2022, the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires had mentioned in an enigmatic way his accession to the throne of Peter, stating to Telam: “I picked up everything that we the Cardinals had said at the pre-Conclave meetings, the things we believed the new Pope should do.... I carried out the things that were asked then.” This was said with the example of the Curia Reform, but without specifying the contents of the program upon which the current Pontiff embarked: a question which gave free reign to all hypotheses.

In Non sei solo, the Pope himself sheds some light in the following excerpt:

Sergio Rubin and Francesca Ambrogetti: In sum, you have said, in becoming Pope, that you had inherited a heavy record in the Church, and that more challenges have offered themselves to you?

Pope Francis: In fact, my program of government was to execute what the cardinals had expressed in the congregations which had preceded the conclave.

Rubin and Ambrogetti: Yes, you told us that it was a matter of “Revitalizing the declaration of the Gospel, reducing the centralism of the Vatican, eradicating pedophilia.”

Pope Francis: And fighting against financial corruption. We have steered ourselves straight into an impasse.

Further Thoughts

So it is from the perspective of this program developed in advance by at least some of the members of the Sacred College of Cardinals in 2013 that we can place the creation of the Secretariat for the Economy and the financial reforms, as well as the conducting of the proceedings concerning the investments of the Secretariat of State abroad.

The Curia reform and the synodal method also appear to be an implementation of the cardinals wishing “to revitalize the declaration of the Gospel and to reduce centralism.” But these reforms, in large part, call into question the divine Constitution of the Church and its Tradition.

Finally, the actions of the current Pope against the abuse of vulnerable persons in the Church—the inheritance of decades past—was sufficiently commented on. History will one day note that the “systemic nature” arbitrarily assigned to these abuses permitted progressives to impose their reforms.

The Political Vision of Pope Francis

In the course of skillfully distilled confidences, the Supreme Pontiff delivers some political reflections: for him, “the political and institutional chaos in which numerous poor or Southern countries find themselves is a product of the failure of the West in its attempt to import its type of democracy in certain countries with a culture, I wouldn’t say tribal, but of a similar kind.”

The recollection of Peronism, which has profoundly marked the current Pope Francis, in any case, persists and makes its mark: “I believe that we must not export our model of democracy to other countries.... Do not make war in order to import a democracy that their people are not capable of assimilating. There are countries which have a monarchical system and which will probably never accept a democracy.

“But you can certainly contribute to ensuring that they have greater participation. Be that as it may, I consider myself ignorant in matters of international politics, but I believe that there is an unfortunate Western choice behind the appearance of the Islamic State.”

The fiasco of Western interventions in Iraq and Libya seem to support such an analysis.

Finally, the Pope sweeps away the rumors of abdication which are whispered in the corridors of the Apostolic Palace, quoting the doctors who pursue it: “It’s truly a mystery. In theory, you must not be able to walk nor even climb stairs!”