Former Swiss Papal Guard reflects on Pope Francis’ legacy

Pope Francis leaves behind the image of an openness and simplicity. Keystone-SDA

Pope Francis died on Monday at the age of 88, the Vatican announced on Easter Monday. Didier Grandjean, a seminarian and former Swiss Guard, believes that although we will need time to take stock, it is already clear that Francis' papacy marked a milestone in the evolution of the Catholic Church.

SWI swissinfo.ch: You knew Pope Francis quite well. Where did you meet him?

Didier Grandjean: I knew Pope Francis relatively well in the sense that I saw him almost every day during my service at the Vatican as a Papal Swiss Guard. After that, I entered the seminary, where he continued to accompany me in different ways, and I saw him again several times after I left the Guard.

Since entering the seminary, Didier Grandjean has had several opportunities to interact with the Pope. zvg

Didier Grandjean

A native of Gruyère in the canton of Fribourg, Didier Grandjean joined the Pontifical Swiss Guard in 2011 and left in 2019. He first served under Benedict XVI, then under Francis from 2013.

He rose to the rank of vice-corporal and was deputy spokesman for the Guard. He is no stranger to the media, and has already spoken out on several occasions, both in Switzerland and abroad.

In January 2023, he was a reader at the funeral Mass of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

Grandjean is currently studying to become a priest at the seminary of the diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg. He spoke about his vocation in this Vatican NewsExternal link article.

How was Pope Francis perceived within the Guard? Was this perception different from that of his predecessor Benedict XVI, under whose pontificate you also served?

It’s true that things changed in the sense that we saw a lot more of Francis. This was mainly due to the fact that he was living at the Saint Martha’s House residence (a guest house close to St Peter’s Basilica) rather than at the Apostolic Palace.

Francis would easily come up to the guards to exchange a few words and he was someone who also joked a lot. So we had quite a close relationship with him. In fact, Francis considered the guards stationed outside his flats to be members of his family. At least, that’s how he put it.

Beyond the Guard, did he have a special relationship with Switzerland, or was it a country like any other in his eyes?

I think he had a special relationship with Switzerland, because of the existence of the Guard. Every year, when the new Guards are sworn in, a member of the Swiss government- often the President – meets the Pope. Switzerland is the only country to have an annual meeting at the highest level.

What’s more, Pope Francis was very familiar with the situation in the various Swiss dioceses through this relationship with the Guard.

Pope Francis visited Switzerland once. He was welcomed by then Swiss president Alain Berset, after his arrival in Geneva on June 21, 2018. Keystone / Peter Klaunzer

When he was elected, he was immediately seen as a different kind of Pope. He was described as a ‘friend of the poor’, a “peacemaker” and a ‘progressive’. Has the rest of his pontificate corroborated this initial vision?

There are always caricatures when every pope is elected, for better or worse. In the case of Francis, certain aspects were right, in particular his concern for the poor and his very simple nature.

But at the beginning he was perhaps seen as a sort of a ‘soft touch’ and later we realised that that wasn’t quite the case. He was someone with a lot of character, who could be very assertive in his positions. And when it came to social issues, it was clear that he was very traditional. The two aspects coexisted. Francis was much more complex than people wanted to say, and the vision of the pontificate has changed somewhat.

Speaking of social issues, the question of the place of women in the Church comes up again and again. Has Francis changed things?

Yes, because there have never been so many women in key positions in the Vatican. For example, he recently appointed a woman to head the Civil Registry. He has really given more importance and more space to women.

He has also reaffirmed the need for theological reflection on their place in the Church. At the last Synod, women were well represented. So a dynamic has been launched, but it’s clear that it’s a long process and that the ordination of women is not on the agenda.

Another issue that keeps cropping up is that of sexual abuse in the Church. Have there been any developments in this sensitive area?

Here too, steps forward have been taken, particularly in terms of canon law and its application. Benedict XVI had already largely paved the way for this evolution towards greater severity. Pope Francis has reaffirmed on several occasions that these acts are intolerable. Commissions and bodies have been set up to ensure that there are no more hidden cases. We saw this in particular in the case of Abbé Pierre. The Pope spoke out about this immediately, without hiding anything.

Francis also emphasised the promotion of peace. What conclusions can we draw in an increasingly unstable world?

In essence, diplomacy has to be somewhat hidden. What I know from living in the Vatican at the time is that, for example, in the context of the civil war in Colombia or the agreement between the United States and Cuba in 2016, the Vatican was a stakeholder in the negotiations. Pope Francis was very attentive to these issues and was very involved. His contribution was essential to finding solutions. Vatican diplomacy under Pope Francis was very active, particularly with the support of the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who is a career diplomat.

Looking at the overall picture, what are the key points?

It will take time to fully grasp the consequences of this pontificate. In any case, I think that Pope Francis’ approach to the very de-Christianised societies of the West was more open than that of his predecessors. He was also very attentive to what was happening in other regions of the world, such as Asia and Africa. I think Pope Francis has helped us to think more broadly, more globally.

In particular, he has urged Europeans to wake up and understand that, even though the situation here may sometimes seem desperate, we need to take a broader look and see the dynamism of the Church in other parts of the world. He appointed cardinals in many countries that had never had any. Under his pontificate, there has been an expansion of the Church that was already underway under his predecessors, but which has experienced greater vitality.

He also tackled some difficult issues, such as abuses in the Church and Vatican finances. He was a courageous pope who did not shy away from anything and who gave new impetus to the Church, even if it will take time to see it.

Edited by Samuel Jaberg. Adapted from French by DeepL/ac