15 March, 2013

POPE DISPLAYS HUMILITY, STOPS BY HOTEL FOR LUGGAGE


THE humility of Pope Francis was on display yesterday during his first day as pontiff.
He stopped by his hotel to pick up his luggage and pay the bill by himself in a decidedly different style for the papacy usually ensconced inside the frescoed halls of the Vatican.
The break from the tradition-minded previous pontificate was evident even in Francis’ wardrobe choices: He kept the simple pectoral cross of his days as bishop and eschewed the red cape that Benedict XVI wore when he was presented to the world for the first time in 2005 — choosing instead the simple white cassock of the papacy.

The former archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, began his first day as pope making an early morning visit in a simple Vatican car to a Roman basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary and prayed before an icon of the Madonna.
He had told a crowd of some 100,000 people packed in rain-soaked St. Peter’s Square just after his election that he intended to pray to the Madonna “that she may watch over all of Rome.”
He also told cardinals he would call on retired Pope Benedict XVI, but the Vatican said the visit wouldn’t take place in a few days.
The main item on Francis’ agenda yesterday was an inaugural afternoon Mass in the Sistine Chapel, where cardinals on Wednesday elected him leader of the 1.2 billion-strong church in an unusually quick conclave.
Francis might be expected to outline some of his priorities as pope in the homily. It was expected to be delivered in Italian, again another break from the traditional-minded Benedict whose first homily as pope was in Latin.
Francis urged the crowd to pray for Benedict and immediately after his election spoke by phone with the retired pope, who has been living at the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo South of Rome.
After the visit to St. Mary Major, Francis also stopped by a Vatican-owned residence in downtown Rome to pick up the luggage that he left behind before moving into the Vatican hotel for the conclave.
He paid the bill “to give a good example,” according to the Vatican spokesman, Rev. Federico Lombardi.
It was a remarkable show of simplicity and humility for a man who could easily have dispatched someone to do the job for him.
He displayed that same sense immediately after his election, shunning the special sedan that was to transport him to the hotel so he could ride on the bus with other cardinals, and refusing even an elevated platform from which he would greet them, according to Timothy Dolan, a United States (U.S.) Cardinal said.
“He met with us on our own level,” Dolan said.
Later, during dinner, the new pope addressed the cardinals and said: “May God forgive you for what you have done.”
According to Lombardi, Pope Francis also went into the main altar area of the basilica and prayed before relics of the manger in Bethlehem where Jesus is believed to have been born — an important pilgrimage spot for Jesuits

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...