Pope Francis, what is his plan?

Three papal appointments in one week have created confusion and surprise.

On January 6, Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Robert McElroy Archbishop of Washington. On the same day, the Pope appointed Sister Simona Brambilla as the Dicastery for Religious Institutes prefect. Also on that day, Pope Francis appointed a cardinal, Angél Fernandez Artime, to serve as pro-prefect alongside Sister Brambilla.

Yet, reading between the lines, they align with what has always happened in the eleven years of the pontificate.

What is Pope Francis’s plan?

Pope Francis does not make sudden revolutions. He prepares revolutions, trying to hide his intentions. And then, when everyone thinks nothing will change, he does it.

McElroy’s appointment in Washington was the most anticipated. There has been talk of a major role for McElroy since the Pope created him a cardinal. And McElroy has not hesitated to show a certain harmony with Pope Francis’s project for the Church. He has sought and achieved excellent visibility in the media. He has theorized, in two essays in Commonweal and one in the Jesuit magazine America – a “radical inclusiveness,” which would also be open to the LGBT world and which would reflect the requests of Pope Francis’s Synod. He has given interviews openly criticizing the migration policies of US President-elect Donald Trump.

McElroy’s profile was known from when Pope Francis decided to create him a cardinal. However, he was the archbishop of San Diego, bypassing cardinalatial dioceses like Los Angeles, which were led by profiles that the Pope did not appreciate. It was known that the US bishops closest to the sensibilities of Pope Francis (such as Cardinal Cupich and Cardinal Tobin) promoted him to more prestigious positions.

However, there was also a rumor that the Pope had rejected McElroy’s candidacy for Washington, and even The Pillar reported that Pope Francis asked Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop emeritus, for advice. And Wuerl would not mention McElroy’s name.

But in the end, Cardinal McElroy went to Washington.

This is not just a political move. It comes on the eve of Trump’s inauguration at the White House, a few days before a farewell visit by President Biden (canceled in the end because of the California wildfires emergency), to whom Pope Francis has shown esteem from the beginning – even with an off-protocol phone call after the election victory, before the inauguration, and another off-protocol the week after Trump’s victory in the last presidential election was announced.

But this seems more like an add-on to another scenario.

Rumors have it that Pope Francis had initially considered sending an archbishop like McElroy to Washington. But he chose Gregory as a transition, calling him, at 72 years old, to lead the capital archdiocese. Gregory, considered a moderate, also had the distinction of being the first black archbishop in DC. Above all, it was a necessary step to make the US bishops digest the nomination of McElroy’s profile.

This is not the first time that Pope Francis has done this.

Even when it came to replacing Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller as prefect of the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he did not call Victor Manuel Fernandez. He chose Luis Ladaria, created him a cardinal, and left him to serve a full five-year term. Ladaria was also considered a moderate. However, as soon as he finished his mandate, the Pope gave substance to what seemed to be his plan: calling Victor Manuel Fernandez to Rome and creating him a cardinal.

So, from the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis did not immediately implement a brutal spoils system. Instead, he waited for observers to lower their guard, let people believe that he would act differently, and then made real choices.

The question is whether he will do the same with the synod themes. In the two stages of the Synod on “Communion, Mission, and Participation,” the majority of participants rejected or redefined the
more progressive thrusts.

The final document of the first stage was heavily amended. Pope Francis removed the controversial themes from the debate and entrusted them to ten study groups. Then, the Pope showed that he welcomed the final document that emerged at the end of the second stage of the Synod—and it was then necessary to clarify that this document became an expression of the magisterium.

However, the work of the ten study groups is not finished.

The interim report presented to the Synod showed that the groups had the same conservative approach as the synodal assembly. This does not mean, however, that, after the groups’ conclusions are published, Francis will not implement some practical revolution that, in fact, changes things, reintroducing the themes dear to him.

One of these issues is precisely the role of women in the Church.

Pope Francis has always been sensitive to the pressure on the female diaconate, if only because the debate on the role of women in the Church has great media coverage. He decided, however, not to take a position. He established two commissions on the female diaconate, and then, little by little, he explained in his statements that women should have more space in the decision-making roles of the Church.

Now, he has decided to appoint a woman as prefect of the dicastery. However, he has appointed a pro-prefect alongside her. Cardinal Fernandez Artime cannot be considered “second” in the dicastery. It has not been explained how, but his work is to be added to that of the prefect. His presence seems to be that of a guarantor, especially when judging clerics of religious orders – who, according to canon law, can only be judged by clerics.

Still, the prefix, Pro-, in ancient titles, means “provisional.” And isn’t it perhaps the case that Cardinal Artime will be there provisionally until the time is ripe to give the woman prefect full power?

This way, Pope Francis does not outline a new way of seeing things. He does not indulge in theological debates. He simply does and undoes, creating precedents, and acting, in many cases, as the true superior of a religious congregation.

Much of the Jesuit way of governing is found in the choices of Pope Francis, who is even absolutist in some cases. And much in the approach of Pope Francis is part of the canonical work of Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda SJ, who supports, it is true, the total primacy of the Pope in the choices – and fact, the power is given by the mission entrusted by the Pope, and not by Holy Orders – but at the same time balances everything with a profoundly religious idea of the hierarchy.

There is, however, a hierarchy, and the Pope does not fail to point it out.

In the Pope’s synodal Church, where everything can be discussed, one cannot have a different approach than that proposed by Pope Francis. Also this week, the news that the Pope has accepted the resignation of the bishop of Frejus – Toulon Dominique Rey seemed to fade into the background, but it was an important signal. Rey, bishop of the diocese for 25 years and much loved, had first undergone an apostolic visit and then the appointment of a coadjutor bishop. It was not clear why he was placed under guardianship.

Still, the fact that the diocese welcomed different communities of different spiritual sensibilities, even traditionalists, did not please, especially since a flourishing of vocations was noted.

Even in the media, there has been an essential judgment on the very quality of vocations as if the vocations of people who love tradition were worth less or were not to be considered in the face of a world going in a completely different direction. But this is the same world in which Cardinal Blase Cupich urges the faithful not to take communion kneeling. This would distract those in line for communion or focus attention on the person rather than on Jesus Christ.

Observers from Argentina pointed out that Pope Francis had a ten-year plan, not a short-term one. These latest events—from the almost sudden crackdown on the traditionalist world to the appointment of the new archbishop of Washington to the suddenly published reform of the Curia and the ad hoc appointments created partly to establish a position, partly to justify a new approach—seem to confirm that the Pope’s strategy from the beginning was to get to this point.

This means we can expect more surprise moves, perhaps even scandalous ones. Or not.