VATICAN CITY
The Daily Beast
Barbie Latza Nadeau
Francis fired the uncompromising commander of his Swiss Guard. With more threats than ever on the Vatican, is the pontiff making a dangerous mistake?
VATICAN CITY — By now, news that Pope Francis has fired yet another Vatican big shot is hardly shocking. This is a pope who has been rolling heads since he came to power in March 2013. But the latest casualty in the reforming pontiff’s line of fire might prove risky for more than him.
According to a brief announcement in the Vatican’s daily newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, Col. Daniel Anrig, the 40-year-old father of four who heads the elite Swiss Guard army is being relieved of his post effective Jan. 31, 2015. The Vatican has not issued an official word on just why the pope dismissed his army commander, but Vatican experts quickly pointed to the fact that Anrig was a heavy-handed leader who demanded that his forces stay in fighting shape despite the pope’s pleas to lighten up. There are secondary reports that an expensive renovation of his penthouse apartment above the spartan Swiss Guard barracks was the tipping point.
Considering the ample threats against Pope Francis by the likes of ISIS and others, discipline in one’s army would seem a strength, not a weakness. Anrig was a leading criminal investigator for the Swiss state police until he was recruited to the Vatican in 1992. He quickly moved up the ranks and was appointed in 2008 as commander by Pope Benedict XVI, who at the time said he “felt safe” knowing Anrig was in charge. But Francis has never shown much concern for his personal safety, once famously telling his bodyguards that the armored car was for them, not him.
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