From The Telegraph:

Pope sacks the head of his Swiss Guard for being ‘too strict’

Daniel Anrig will no longer serve as commandant of Pontiff’s private army after Pope Francis is rumoured to prefer a ‘less military’ approach to security

He has dismissed and demoted cardinals, bishops and the Vatican secretary of state, and now Pope Francis’s reformist zeal has claimed a new scalp – the head of his own private army, the Swiss Guard.

In a dispassionate one-sentence notice, the Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, announced on Wednesday that Daniel Anrig will no longer serve as the commandant of the 500-year-old corps after the end of next month.

No official explanation was given for the decision, but it was widely rumoured that the Argentinean Pope, who has established a warmer, more inclusive style of governance since being appointed pontiff in March last year, found the commander’s manner overly strict and “Teutonic”.

The 77-year-old pope is said to have been appalled recently to have emerged one morning from his private suite of rooms to find that a Swiss Guard had been standing guard all night.

“Sit down,” he told the young guardsman, to which the soldier said: “I can’t, it’s against orders.”

The Pope replied: “I give the orders around here,” and promptly went off to buy a cappuccino for the exhausted soldier.

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