VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Picking up the telephone and calling people out of the blue is no big deal for Pope Francis, according to a Vatican official.

Msgr. Dario Vigano, director of the Vatican Television Center, said the pope told him that the many calls the journalists have brought to light are just the tip of the iceberg: “Good thing they don’t know about all the ones I have made!” the pope reportedly said.

In an interview Sept. 13 with Famiglia Cristiana, an Italian Catholic magazine, Msgr. Vigano said that during a recent meeting with the pope, he asked the pontiff about the media frenzy over reports of papal cold calls.

The monsignor said the pope looked at him amazed and said, “Tell the journalists that my calls are not news.”

According to Msgr. Vigano, the pope said, “That’s the way I am; I’ve always done this, even in Buenos Aires,” where he served first as auxiliary bishop beginning in 1992 and archbishop from 1998 until his election as pope this past March.

He said the pope explained how any time he got “a card or a letter from a priest having difficulties, from a family or a prisoner, I would respond.”

The pope said, “For me, it’s much easier to call, to ask about the problem and suggest a solution, if there is one. Some people I call, others I write to instead,” according to Msgr. Vigano.