New Pope finds it difficult to part with old ways

March 15, 2013 - Pope Francis is finding it difficult to part with his humble and unassuming ways, despite being elected the head of the world’s some 1.2 billion Catholics, observed the Holy See’s spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi. The Jesuit priest told reporters on Friday said that the director of the Santa Martha hotel, housing the cardinal electors, including the new Pope, observed that on arriving at the dining hall for meals, Pope Francis finds himself comfortable in any empty seat available among other cardinals rather than the place reserved for him. The director also noted that on Thursday, when the Pope went to the hotel in Rome, where he as Cardinal Jorge Bergolio was lodging before the conclave, to pick up his luggage and pay his bills, he enquired about the hotel employees and their families, something that many were deeply touched with. Fr. Lombardi also said that Pope Francis is dissuading his fellow Argentines from making an expensive journey to Rome to felicitate him, but rather to donate the money saved in solidarity and charity to the poor and needy. Apostolic Nuncio to Argentina, Archbishop Emil Paul Tscherrig told Fr. Lombardi that Pope Francis phoned him the night he was elected, asking him to tell the bishops to urge their faithful not to make the expensive trip to Rome.