Pope marks 10 years with podcast and a diplomatic row

Pope Francis marked 10 years as head of the Catholic Church on Monday with a podcast, a private Mass and a series of interviews, one of which triggered a diplomatic spat with Nicaragua.

“It seems like yesterday,” the 86-year-old said of his election during a podcast for the official Vatican News outlet, after first having to be told what a podcast was.

Asked what he would like as a gift for his 10-year anniversary, for which he had no public plans beyond a Mass with cardinals, the Pope added: “Peace. We need peace.”

Jorge Bergoglio was elected pope on March 13, 2013, after his predecessor Benedict XVI stunned the world by becoming the first pope to resign since the Middle Ages.

He has said he never expected to be elected, only packing a small suitcase to travel from Argentina to Rome for the conclave on the assumption he would soon be back in Buenos Aires, where he was archbishop.

Over the next decade, he overhauled the governance of the church, including cleaning up the Vatican books and taking action against clerical child abuse.

He also shifted many people's perception of the papacy by engaging less in theology and more with social issues, from migration to the environment.

While maintaining traditional doctrine on issues such as abortion and gay marriage, he has also sought to forge an image of a more open, compassionate Catholic Church.

“He is a Pope for this time,” said Father Roberto, an Italian priest who travelled to St Peter's Square to hear the Pope deliver his weekly Angelus prayer on Sunday.

“He managed to grasp today's needs and to propose them to the whole universal church … And now he's giving the church a push forward for the years to come. He is sowing good for the future.

Not everyone, however, is enamoured of Pope Francis's approach, notably the conservative wing of the Catholic Church. One critic, German Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, recently criticised the Pope's “doctrinal confusion”.

The Pope has never shied away from controversy, regularly using his pulpit to rail against everything from the mafia to consumerism to the arms industry.

In one of his anniversary interviews with Argentinian news outlet Infobae, he described the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega as a “crude dictatorship”.

Mr Ortega's government, which has long had tension with the Catholic Church, responded on Sunday by saying it was considering suspending diplomatic ties with the Vatican.

In another interview with Swiss broadcaster RTS last week, the Pope denounced the involvement of all the “great powers” in the Ukraine war.

He prays regularly for the victims of the war, although he has been criticised for failing to squarely put the blame on Russia as the aggressor.

Pope Francis has sought to improve ties with the Muslim world during his papacy, and Sheikh Ahmed El Tayeb, Grand Imam of Cairo's Al Azhar Mosque, was one of those who sent their congratulations on his 10-year milestone.

10 years of Pope Francis — in pictures

In a letter published by Vatican News, the Grand Imam hailed the Pope's efforts to “build bridges of love and fraternity among all human beings”.

Messages of congratulations also came in from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, and Anglican leader Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Archbishop joined Pope Francis on a recent peace mission to conflict-ridden South Sudan, where huge crowds flocked to see the pontiff, as they do everywhere he goes.

The Pope continues to travel widely, despite his age and health issues.

He was hospitalised in 2021 for colon surgery and now uses a wheelchair due to knee trouble — something he admitted in one interview he was “a little ashamed” about.

Pope Francis has said he would follow his predecessor in resigning if he ever became too infirm for the job but insists that is not on the agenda.

Asked by Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano what his hopes for the future were, he replied: “That the Lord be merciful with me. Being the pope is not an easy job.”

The Pope in quotes

From his first papal encyclical, a letter to the church, which was dedicated to the environment and published on June 18, 2015: “The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth … The pace of consumption, waste and environmental change has so stretched the planet's capacity that our contemporary lifestyle, unsustainable as it is, can only precipitate catastrophes.”

His weekly address on March 6, 2022, referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022: “In Ukraine, rivers of blood and tears are flowing. This is not just a military operation but a war which sows death, destruction and misery.”

At a meeting of German Catholics at the Vatican in October 2016: “It's hypocrisy to call yourself a Christian and chase away a refugee or someone seeking help, someone who is hungry or thirsty, toss out someone who is in need of my help.”

During a seminar on ethical investing in the Vatican in June 2014: “It is increasingly intolerable that financial markets are shaping the destiny of people rather than serving their needs, or that the few derive immense wealth from financial speculation while the many are deeply burdened by the consequences.”

Comments to the International Catholic Child Bureau on April 11, 2014: “I feel compelled to personally take on all the evil that some priests — quite a few in number, [although] obviously not compared to the number of all priests — to personally ask for forgiveness for the damage they have done for having sexually abused children.”

During a speech at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in October 2014: “The 'Big Bang' that today is considered to be the origin of the world does not contradict the creative intervention of God — on the contrary it requires it. Evolution in nature is not in contrast with the notion of [divine] creation because evolution requires the creation of the beings that evolve.”