"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Pope Francis' First Hours

From a report in the Telegraph:

More details have been emerging about the Pope’s first hours in Office. We heard earlier that after his election, he shunned the official Vatican City 1 car for the short trip back to where the Cardinals were staying, joining them on a communal minibus.
We are told that he said: I’m going home on the bus because I came here on the bus.”
He also – very pointedly – declined to sit on a throne to receive his fellow Cardinals last night, standing to greet them one by one. Then there was his surprise trip to church this morning – making his way through rush-hour traffic in a plain car with no cavalcade.
But the priests there could not have been as surprised as the staff at the clerical hostel in Rome where he was staying last week when he called in on his way back to pick up his bags.
After retrieving his belongings, he called at the reception desk and insisted on paying his bill. He said he wanted it to be an example to bishops and archbishops.
 
He's just what we need.

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