Through the press, private meetings, and the Holy See's diplomatic network: Pope Francis keeps abreast of world news through a variety of channels. While we don't know all the details of his daily life, about which the Holy See Press Office remains very discreet, Jorge Mario Bergoglio sometimes talks about it in the course of the many interviews he grants.
Print media
In an interview with the local Argentinian daily La Voz del Pueblo in May 2015, we learned that he reads the press every day — even if this comment gave rise to some confusion. Indeed, the Pope assured us: “I only read one newspaper, La Repubblica, which is a newspaper aimed at the middle class. I read it in the morning and don't spend more than 10 minutes reading it.”
The mention of the famous daily — ranked second in Italy in terms of sales — whose editorial line is rather left-wing and sometimes hostile to the Church, astonished some and enraptured others.
However, a few days later, the Dagospia website revealed that the Pope had mistakenly cited the wrong media. He didn't mean La Repubblica, but Messaggero, the daily newspaper of Rome and therefore of his diocese. According to Vatican sources, Francis assured us that this was a “slip of the tongue.”
This clarification was later repeated by the then-correspondent of Spanish radio station Cope, Paloma García Ovejero, on her X (then Twitter) account: “You know what...? The Pope said in his last interview that he reads the newspaper La Repubblica, but in reality he meant Il Messaggero. It was a slip of the tongue!”
Still on the subject of print media, the Spanish-speaking pontiff is also said to read, every Sunday afternoon, the weekly magazine Vida Nueva, which covers Church news in Spain and around the world. A journalist from the magazine confirms that he drops off two copies at Santa Marta every weekend, and that the Pope reads it “from A to Z.”
Not online
On the other hand, as Francis has often said, he has never been computer savvy and isn’t an internet user. He doesn't consult the web, so he won't have the opportunity to come across one of his many fake photos, showing him at the altar busy getting married, portraying him as a rapper, or wrapped in a metallic-white down jacket that's as surprising as it is hilarious.
According to Vatican sources, the head of the Catholic Church receives a daily press review. He also receives information sent to him by the Dicastery for Communication via his private secretary. The Vatican diplomatic network, with its nuncios all over the world, also provides him with local news.
Informal channels
On a broader level, Pope Francis is kept informed by the people he meets or calls during his audiences. Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for example, the pontiff has said on several occasions that he’s in daily telephone contact with the parish priest in Gaza — an Argentinian like himself — who keeps him abreast of the situation. After these sometimes unfiltered exchanges with his interlocutors, the Pope sometimes reacts publicly by spontaneously commenting, “I've been told that...”
Last December, one such piece of informal information almost provoked a diplomatic incident. In front of his Curia collaborators, the head of the Catholic Church lamented that Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, had been prevented from visiting Gaza. Israel, however, has denied this.
“Contrary to false allegations published in the media today, the patriarch's request [...] to enter Gaza has been accepted, as has been the case in the past and according to his wishes,” the Israeli embassy to the Holy See assured the press in a tweet at the end of the day. The cardinal was finally able to celebrate Mass in Gaza's Catholic parish.
The Pope doesn't watch television (much)
Pope Francis doesn't watch much television, as he himself revealed. “I haven't watched television since 1990. It was a vow I made to Our Lady of Mount Carmel on the night of July 15, 1990,” he told La Voz del Pueblo in 2015. The occasion of the vow was “nothing in particular.”
“I realized it wasn't for me,” he explained simply, saying that he didn't even watch the matches of his favorite soccer team, San Lorenzo. “A Swiss guard leaves me the results and standings every week,” he added.
Over the years, however, the Pope has made a few exceptions to the rule. He has often cited a television program he enjoys: the religious program A Sua Immagine (“In His Image”), on the Italian public television channel RAI.
On March 4, when receiving the program's team at the Vatican, he told them that he watches it before the Angelus he presides over in St. Peter's Square on Sundays. “Before appearing at the window, I like to watch it for a few minutes, and sometimes I've mentioned some content that particularly struck me.”
