A rchive Date
[ 24-01-2017 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Vatican ]
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[New Pope pays his own bills
VATICAN CITY - Like anyone nearing the end of a business trip, Jorge Bergoglio's morning routine Thursday involved picking up his own luggage and heading to the front desk where he paid his own bill.
Of course, Bergoglio ended his business trip to the Vatican this week with a monster promotion: He's now Pope Francis.
At dinner Wednesday night, for example, the cardinals that had just elected him after five rounds of voting raised their glasses in a toast to the new pontiff. He toasted right back, "May God forgive you for what you've done!"
As Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis chose not to live in the palace that comes with the job and instead lived in a modest apartment, cooked his own meals, and took the subway to work.
He took the name Francis, the 'first pope' to ever use that name, symbolising his closeness to the 12th-century Saint Francis of Assisi who famously repudiated all worldly goods and chose to travel with and minister to beggars and the poor.
But, on Saturday - at Francis' insistence, he'll meet the world's press and take questions in English, French, Spanish, German or Italian - the languages fluently spoken by the new Pope.
For the first time since the eighth century, the College of Cardinals went outside the comfort zone of Europe to choose its new pontiff (the spiritual leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics). A stunning departure from the expected.
Canadians were wishing and hoping that Quebec's Cardinal, Marc Ouellet, would have been the chosen one but it was more out of patriotic pride than a realistic belief or hope.
Argentina’s (former) Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, the first Pope Francis and first Jesuit elevated to 'the Big Chair' in the Vatican, represents a nod to the Hispanic base of the church’s largest flock of the Faithful.
For a religion so immersed conservatism and ancient traditions that goes back almost 2,000 years/ Millennia this is a liberal move by the Roman Catholic Church.
So give this old boys’ club some credit.
Until this historic moment, Pope Francis has lived his entire life in Argentina. He rode a bus to work while wearing ordinary priest robes and rejected a lavish residence entitled to the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Instead, he lived in a shared apartment.
Faith in the Roman Catholic Church has waned over the years in the First World as former or lapsing adherents - driven to increasing secularism and cynicism, brought about by the numerous scandals involving Roman Catholic Clergy.
To those who believe that Pope Francis will get about the liberal business of bringing an antiquated church “into the 21st century”, the cynics, of course, will claim that they are doomed to be disappointed.
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Michelangelo's Last Judgment
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Michelangelo%27s+soaring+Last+Judgment+&FORM=HDRSC2
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Judgment+Last+Michelangelo+Paintings&FORM=RESTAB
Michelangelo's God Giving Life to Adam
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Michelangelo%27s+God+giving+life+to+Adam+&FORM=HDRSC2
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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