Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:33 pm by globalturbo
I DID NOT WANT TO BE POPE, SAYS FRANCIS
Source au.yahoo: Pope Francis has revealed he never wanted to be Pope and that he’s living in the Vatican hotel for his “psychiatric” health.Francis showed a personal and spontaneous side as he met with thousands of children from Jesuit schools across Italy and Albania.
Tossing aside his prepared remarks, Francis surprised the kids by asking them if they’d like to ask him some questions instead.
“Yes!” they shouted to cheers and applause – and the concern of teachers who fretted that no one had prepared anything.
Answering their questions one by one, Francis told them the decision
to become a priest had been difficult and that he had suffered “moments
of interior darkness” when “you feel dry, without interior joy.”
But he said he went ahead because he loved Christ.
One of the most touching moments came when Teresa, a bright-eyed
redhead no more than six, asked Francis flat out if he had wanted to be
Pope.
Francis joked that only someone who hated himself would ever want to
be Pope. But then he became serious: “I didn’t want to be Pope.”
Someone else asked him why he had renounced the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace
in favour of his spare suite in the Vatican hotel, where he has been
living ever since the March conclave that elected him the first Jesuit
Pope and first pontiff from the Americas.
It wasn’t so much a question of luxury as personality, he said.
“I need to live among people,” he said.
“If I was living alone, isolated, it wouldn’t be good for me. A
professor asked me the same question, ‘why don’t you go and live there
(in the Papal apartments)’? And I replied: ‘Listen to me professor, it is for psychiatric reasons’,” he said chuckling.
This week, the Vatican confirmed Francis wouldn’t vacation at the
papal summer retreat at Castel Gandolofo, in the hills south of Rome, and would instead remain in the Santa Marta hotel with a reduced work schedule.
Francis’ predecessors have all decamped for at least a few weeks each
summer to the estate, where the lush gardens, lakeside perch and cool
breezes provide a welcome respite to the oppressive summer heat of Rome.
The estate, which by acreage is bigger than Vatican City, is entirely
walled in, making it a perfect escape for a Pope who wants isolation
and solitude – but not one who wants to eat breakfast each morning with a
group of fellow priests, as Francis does in the communal dining room of
the Vatican hotel.
Thanks to: http://aworldchaos.wordpress.com
