SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
It's been a big week for Pope Francis. His new memoir "Hope," published in 80 countries, is the first time a sitting pontiff has published a full memoir. In the middle of the week, the Vatican announced an agreement between Washington and Havana for the release of over 500 Cuban prisoners, as well as a plan to lift the island's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. And amid all of that, Francis won a big award from a close global ally. President Biden awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction, which is the highest civilian honor the U.S. hands out. Here to put it in context is Nicole Winfield, AP's Vatican correspondent. Welcome to the show.
NICOLE WINFIELD: Thank you for having me.
DETROW: Let's start with the memoir. You read it and reviewed it. What stood out to you?
WINFIELD: This does cover a lot of territory that we're all pretty much familiar with - the childhood in Buenos Aires and then progressing into the key priorities as pope. I'd say what jumped out at me is that we finally have a little bit of retrospection, a little bit of self-criticism, primarily of some things that he did when he was younger that he regrets. So it's not just a biography. There's kind of the added value of, in his own words, the pope saying, yeah, I really could have done that better.
DETROW: You and other articles I read about it had a similar conclusion, that there are areas where Pope Francis was not too forthcoming, whether they were controversial areas or areas of his life where there's still kind of some mystery as to what actually went on. Curious - what are one or two portions of his life that you would have loved to have read more about in this memoir?
WINFIELD: Yeah. So I think anyone who covers the pope - we are all just curious beyond belief about what happened in Cordoba. So this is a period of his life - he's a young priest. He has already served as the provincial of the Jesuits in Argentina, but then from about 1990 to 1992, the superiors back in Rome exile him to Cordoba, Argentina, to serve as a confessor. So no one really knows what he did or how he got on the bad side of the superiors to have earned essentially a demotion, a fairly serious demotion. He has spoken of it really in fleeting terms. In this book, he only speaks of the dark night, as if it were one of these crisis in faith, as if, you know, he had to find himself again. One would have hoped that in the autobiography, he might finally have become a little more transparent.
The other one that jumped out at me, just because it's an issue that I've covered quite closely, is he doesn't seem to give a lot of attention to the clergy sexual abuse crisis. He talks about it a little bit but not at the length or level that I would have expected.
DETROW: Let's shift to this agreement between the U.S. and Cuba. This isn't the first time the Vatican has facilitated prisoner releases in Cuba. There were some tied around papal visits from Pope John Paul, from Pope Benedict. The Cuban regime released hundreds of prisoners at those times. I'm curious, does this particular agreement strike you as unique in any way?
WINFIELD: I wouldn't say so. As you say, we have seen this kind of constant dialogue, a triangulation almost, between the U.S., the Vatican and Cuba. This one is unique, I guess, because the Cuban government is attributing it to the Holy Year. So that is kind of the novelty, that this is not a pope trip, but we have a jubilee, which has just gotten started in Rome. And one of the key things that Pope Francis asked for in the papal bull announcing this jubilee was for governments to offer gestures of clemency - amnesties, pardons. This is a common thing for jubilees, but they only happen every 25 years.
DETROW: And this is a president that the Pope has a relationship with, has met several times. They've corresponded. They've talked on the phone. I mentioned the Medal of Freedom that Biden awarded him, which he did after a visit - an in-person visit had to be canceled due to the wildfires. All of that changes Monday. Any sense in the Vatican how the Pope is going to approach a second Trump presidency?
WINFIELD: This papacy obviously will do what it has to do. It has to work with the Trump administration. The U.S. bishops' conference does lean a little conservative, so we can expect that there will be, at least on the official level, good relationships. There are common points of interest. Obviously, the Vatican is very much opposed to abortion. You know, we might not have that close personal connection that there was between Pope Francis and President Biden, but there will be obvious points of contact and cooperation.
DETROW: Last thing I want to ask about - amid all of the things that happened this week, the pope fell and injured his arm. He's 88 years old. It's the second time he's fallen in a month. How much concern is there in and around the Vatican right now about his health?
WINFIELD: I think this is different. This is not the bronchitis that we're used to seeing every winter. So this is an indication of fragility, more so than what we've seen in the past. We know he's got bad knees. We know he's unstable on his feet. But these domestic falls at someone of his age - anyone who has a grandparent knows that they can be quite serious.
DETROW: Right.
WINFIELD: So also because the last pope, when he fell - Pope Benedict was on a trip to Mexico in 2012, fell at night, hit his head, and it is now universally believed that that fall is what really sealed the deal for him to decide to retire. So falls are a big deal, and I think we're all looking at this one quite seriously.
DETROW: That's Nicole Winfield, AP's Vatican correspondent. Thanks so much.
WINFIELD: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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