[markomalley]

I certainly hope that he is just making a point and that this does not point to some generalized micromanagement.

[stormer]

Frankly, I think you’d have to be out of your mind to drive anywhere in Italy, but Rome is totally out of the question.

[ClaytonP]

He can sell of the Vatican and then conduct the business of the church in a dreary soviet-era building.

[Jeff Chandler]

I wonder what he thinks of the air conditioning.

.

[steve86]

goodness gracious. i hope we don’t start seeing a proliferation of clunkers retrieved from junkyards of roma, or a gaggle of volts and leafs around the car parks of the vatican, and please let’s leave the solar panels off the dome of st. peter’s basilica.

[oh8eleven]

it bothers me when I see a priest or a sister with a brand new car
Flashback 1960 ... as my mother and I were getting into our 7 year Chevy, our local priest pulled into my neighbor's driveway in a brand new '60 Buick.
When I commented on the difference between our rust bucket and his shiny, black car, she said - Yeah, and don't ever forget it.
I never have.

[steve86]

" Priests often put a lot of miles on a car. It seems to me that priests are better off in a good car."

That definitely hits home when I think of the 85 YO visiting (driving) priests who celebrate our Latin Mass, four seasons a year.

[Kevmo]

I like this pope.

[RobbyS]

I think the Holy Father is making the point that the Vatican should not be run as if it were a Renaissance palace. Besides, until 1870, the popes did not lived in the Vatican but in what is now the Italian presidential palace. Furthermore, the actual Cathedral of Rome is St, John Lateran. Furthermore this pope is not the first to be made uncomfortable about having to live like a prince. Pope Benedict reportedly was reluctant to leave his modest apartment near ST. PETER’S.

[Buckeye McFrog]

EXCELLENT move by His Holiness to crack down on this hypocrisy.

I remember Msgr. Charles Owen Rice, Pittsburgh’s vaunted “Labor Priest”. He would go around lecturing corporations and the wealthy about their greed and poor treatment of “the American working man”. Yet he never drove anything but high-end luxury German automobiles.

[frithguild]

[Alex Murphy]

The Pope declared war on the Vatican’s luxury cars. First, he attacked wastefulness, underscoring that “it bothers me when I see a priest or a sister with a brand new car”. Then, a few days later, he put into practice what he had stated during a meeting with seminarians: on Wednesday he made an inspection of the Vatican parking lot. It isn’t the first time – already in the past days Pope Francis, on his way to lunch with a cardinal friend, visited the place where some cardinals usually park their cars.

"This is why we can't have nice things" PING

An 80-year-old retired priest allegedly bit an ear off another elderly clergyman during a violent brawl over a parking bay in their block of units...According to police, after the brawl Father Byrne told Father Smith to pick up an item up on the ground. It was not until Father Smith returned to his unit that he realised the item he had picked up and put in his pocket was his right ear....
-- from the thread Ear bitten off in priest v priest fight

[FR_addict]

He reminds me of Obama.

He's worried about appearances rather than solving problems.

I used to give to Catholic Charities, but when I found out they supported Acorn, I quit giving to them.

I give to other charities. The only Catholic one I give to now is Covenant House which doesn't seem to be on Catholic Charities list. I often wonder how they can justify Acorn and other left wing causes, but not Covenant House (a charity that helps our throwaway kids)

[Berlin_Freeper]

I for one would rather see gold in the form of a Cross on the wall rather than hidden in a Swiss bank.

[3Quartets]

Please, people, I don’t think the Pope is advocating people drive used old clunkers. But, in my view, there is no need for a priest to be driving a Mercedes-Benz, worth perhaps $63,000 - which is what one Columbian priest was driving when it was suggested he sell it for a more humble model. There are plenty of more modest and reliable models along the car continuum.

Frankly, I’m surprised that a member of the clergy even needs to be told this.

[Moonman62]

I friend of mine was thinking about becoming a priest many years ago. I went with him when he went to talk to his recruiters (priests) on a yacht.

I'm with the Pope on this one.

[UnRuley1]

Would this pope have admonished Fulton Sheen for driving a Cadillac? The car was a gift. Also, why is he focusing on this stuff? The kind of car people drive is not directly related to their spiritual state. Shouldn’t he be working on building the body of Christ like his predessors JPII and BXVI?

[mlizzy]

Ha! We just finished a 4-day Hertz Rental of a 2013 Ford Focus (with 10,000 miles on it). While there were some nice facets about it (the air worked for instance!), the ENTIRE interior looked like it was made of recycled pop bottles (what would the Pope's focus be on that?), so hopping back into our 1995 Honda Accord today (with 180,000 miles on it) which still has a beautiful interior, was a relief (and even a bit of a luxury:))...

Regardless, both cars got/get us to Eucharistic Adoration!

[ravenwolf]

I imagine he is just talking about the cars that the important people in the church are driving and every one else are paying for.