Pope Francis' first moves hint at break with past

BBC News ^ | 16 March 2013 | David Willey

[ClearCase_guy]

I’m a Protestant, but I’m pretty excited about this Pope.

[cothrige]

"No thank you, Monsignore," Pope Francis is reported to have replied. "You put it on instead. Carnival time is over!"

This comes from a legitimate news source, which makes it interesting, but it seems almost impossible to believe. Could the new pope have been this hostile and rude, both to his predecessor and Msgr. Marini? I wonder.

[ntnychik]

Maybe it wasn’t rude. I first thought he was referring to carn-i-VAL, the time of celebration before Lent, the period of repentance and self-denial. It seems like good symbolism to me.

[Salamander]

Maybe it was carnival in the root sense, as in “festival of the flesh”.

[1_Rain_Drop]

I doubt Jesus wore elaborate clothes.
I’m sure he wore furs to keep warm, not as decor.

I LOVE Pope Francis!
He doesn’t seem to have any pharisee blood in him.

[muawiyah]

not all Americans know the term FASCHING ~ but they do know what A CARNIVAL is ~ but I take it he was referring to the period of time when such festivals and parades take place ~ and, that’s over.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I am amassing huge grains of salt for what I see in the press, and especially in the British press. This is BBC. And don't even talk to me about the Guardian.

Fatti non Parole. It will be interesting to see what he does with the curial appointments. He has a rare opportunity now to clear the decks. Oremus.

[Paladin2]

"He has a rare opportunity now to clear the decks"

I read that the last Pope took out a non-performing Bishop a month, on average.

[null and void]

The Rock of Rome.

[livius]

The mediaites hated Benedict, but they’re going to be shocked to see that they’ve actually ended up with somebody much stronger. BXVI was very committed to orthodox morality and doctrine, but he was so much of a scholar and a mystic that the folks at the Vatican and the secular world could run right over him. That’s why he resigned, because he knew we needed somebody stronger.

And Pope Francis is strong, uncompromising, and is really going to p.o. the press in a big way...

[0.E.O]

This comes from a legitimate news source, which makes it interesting, but it seems almost impossible to believe. Could the new pope have been this hostile and rude, both to his predecessor and Msgr. Marini? I wonder.

I have my doubts about the accuracy. It happened while the Conclave was still sealed. For someone to have related this means someone broke the vow of secrecy. Now I can understand the comment on the papal apartment since the Pope is, by all accounts, accustomed to a simpler lifestyle.

[Moonman62]

You only had to look at the shocked faces of many of the courtiers when they suddenly realised the significance of what had happened and understood that it really was over.

I hope I live long enough to see something similar happen in the Washington, DC area.

[livius]

One of the best gifts of BXVI was that he cleaned up the bishops, mostly through the work of Ouellet. BXVI made some very bad appointments of people in the curia, mostly because he had worked with them for so long he felt beholden, and they completely ignored him.

Ouellet was one of his excellent appointments, and if you have a good bishop, thank him (and BXVI, of course!).

[GeronL]

new age (relatively speaking) Pope?

[livius]

I don’t believe Pope Francis would have said that. But who can contradict it now that it’s out on the net?

One of the reasons BXVI resigned, I believe, was that this happened to him more than once: unattributed “quotes” coming from people who had a vested interest in bringing him down. And he was too old and frail to control them.

[cothrige]

Yes, it will be interesting. I will admit, though, that I am a touch worried on some fronts. I certainly have doubts about this ascribed quote from the BBC, but some of what he has been confirmed to have done leaves me scratching my head.

For instance, much has been made about his living in an apartment when in Buenos Aires rather than the normal residence, which I gather was rather palatial. Okay, it sounds good, but if the Church still owned the house reserved for the cardinal all it really amounted to was creating a new rent bill for the Church. How does that help anyone? If a person spends more money so that they can live somewhere that looks cheaper then the motive appears to be entirely about how things look, which is not exactly as humble as it seems at first sight.

Just something I am thinking about as I watch and read during these early days of this new papacy.

[Legatus]

In charity we must assume that the episcopal residence was utilized for other purposes during his tenure.

Lord grant me charity though.

[potlatch]

I think this Pope is going to avoid any signs of ostentation. He showed several signs of that in his first minutes as Pope.

He refused the red cape and first appeared to the people wearing simple white papal robes and black shoes.

Rather than bless the crowd first, he asked them to pray for him. He is a humble man.

The pontiff also broke with another tradition by refusing to use a platform to elevate himself above the cardinals standing with him as he was introduced to the world as Pope Francis. He said, “I’ll stay down here”.