Francis Goes House Hunting in Guidonia

L'Esspresso ^ | January 12, 2017 | Sandro Magister

[ebb tide]

On the afternoon of Sunday, January 15 Pope Francis, in full exercise of his role as bishop of Rome, will visit the parish of Santa Maria a Setteville.

Of the more than 300 parishes in the diocese of Rome, this is the twelfth that will welcome the pope. So he has not visited very many of them yet, in part because for the duration of the Jubilee he suspended the visits.

But there is one curious element that makes this visit special.

The parish of Santa Maria a Setteville does not fall within the territory of the municipality of Rome, but in that of Guidonia Montecelio, a town of 80,000 inhabitants to the east of the capital (see photo). Eleven of the fourteen parishes of Guidonia belong to the diocese of Tivoli, and three of the diocese of Rome. And Pope Francis has already visited one of these three, that of Santa Maria dell'Orazione, on March 16, 2014, and now he is preparing to visit another. Two out of three.

The question arises: what makes Pope Francis want to go there in particular?

Last June the Argentine archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s trusted theologian and influential adviser, said in an interview with Religión Digital that “the pope does not necessarily have to live in Rome all the time,” because he is also “supreme pastor of the whole Church.”

But even in his capacity as bishop of Rome, he added, “there is nothing to stop him from going to live in Guidonia Montecelio,” which is another municipality but is still part of his diocese.

That’s right: Fernández singled out Guidonia as a possible place for the pope’s residence. Not the Vatican, not the city center, but one of its extreme peripheries, one of those "geographical and existential peripheries” so dear to Bergoglio.

You never know what to expect with Pope Francis. Why not this sort of stunt, too?

*

Musing over places of residence for the pope and the curia is a favorite maneuver for Fernández, who last spring even provoked a duel between himself and Cardinal Gerhard L. Müller, prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of faith, a clash that further reinforced the partnership between the Argentine theologian and Bergoglio:

> "Eretico". Il verdetto del cardinale Müller sul primo consigliere del papa

(English translation by Matthew Sherry, Ballwin, Missouri, U.S.A.)

[ebb tide]

You never know what to expect with Pope Francis. Why not this sort of stunt, too?

[BlessedBeGod]

So, what’s wrong with Castel Gandolfo?

I hope he’s not going to be spending Church monies on this. He’s so humble, you know.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

I’m all for Francis looking to purchase a home — a RETIREMENT home.

[lee martell]

Perhaps he has ‘gotten tired’ of living at the Vatican.
Didn’t the Pope welcome a few Syrian refugees onto Vatican grounds last year? Maybe his new neighbors are too noisy.

[Bigg Red]

Please let this be his retirement home. Retire now, Francis!