Excessive humbleness can be another form of vanity. Especially PUBLIC humbleness.
Why not a room at the Italian version of the Motel 6? ....He didn’t want to cheat his kids from a $378,000 stay in Jamaica?...Oh, wait...
Oh please. I think he really doesn’t want to be isolated the way Popes usually are and does want to live with other normal human beings (there are something like 60 monsignori who work at the Vatican who live there year round, as well as all sorts of visitors).
And I wouldn’t be surprised if BXVI himself recommended this. Remember, he was brought down by Vatican intrigues. One thing he said to a visitor was that his valet, the one who stole and leaked his personal papers, was also the one who gave him his medications every morning. “Just imagine,” he said.
So I think the Pope is probably a lot safer at the Domus Mariae than at the Vatican apartments. In any case, living there is relatively recent: popes lived at St John Lateran (the cathedral of Rome) until Pio Nono in 1903.
Honestly none of us know what is in the heart of the new Pope..but ponder this. Luxury and opulence not only give an image of excess but they also serve to corrupt. Perhaps he is not only serving as an example but is careful to keep himself humble as well, so he doesn’t become so concerned with the image and the lifestyle that he forgets his apostolic mission.
I know it’s fiction but a worthwhile analogy is Gandalf’s refusal to touch the ring. Same idea, in order to keep his humility he is denying himself the worldly treasures and comforts that tend to corrupt us and keep us from God. I doubt his behavior is all for show.
He has just decided to live the way he always did.
It wasn’t “excessive humbleness” when nobody knew who he was.
I don’t like anybody cooking for me.
I would rather cook my own food.
I like to cook.
How could his humbleness not be public?
He is the pope, he can’t avoid the publicity. He lived simply in Argentina and chooses to live simply at the Vatican.
He chose the name Francis after St. Francis of Assisi who chose to live in poverty even though his family was wealthy. Poverty, living it to address the spiritual poverty that has overtaken our world and the human poverty that really ensues because of the spiritual poverty seems to be something he is going to base his papacy on.
I am ecstatic that he is taking bold steps. He is sending a message, a bold message and believe me the usual subjects are taking notice.
Pope Benedict’s papacy really laid the groundword for Pope Francis, Benedict slowly pulled the Church, especially the American church away from extreme liberalism. Liberal bishops have been replaced with conservative, faithful bishops and Pope Francis will have a much more receptive and obedient American church. I can only believe that this same pattern was followed throughout the world.
Jogged my memory....."I am well aware that I am the umblest person going. My mother is likewise a very umble person. We live in a umble abode. We are so very umble."
(Uriah Heep in "David Copperfield", chapter 16, by Charles Dickens).
Leni
You are saying his humility is excessive?
Maybe it’s natural and not excssive.
Are you the arbiter and measurer of Papal humility, or just any peoples’ humility?
Are you licensed, bonded and certified in humbleness testing?