A few of the Pope's favourite things
Written by Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service
Wednesday, 03 April 2013 11:53
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Pope Francis gestures as he arrives to lead his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican April 3.
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CNS photo/Paul Haring
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VATICAN CITY - Here are a few of Pope Francis' favourite things,
which he revealed in a series of interviews granted while he was
archbishop of Buenos Aires.
The interviews are in the book, Pope Francis: Conversations with
Jorge Bergoglio by Sergio Rubin and Francesca Ambrogetti, which was
originally published in 2010 under the title El Jesuita (The Jesuit). It
is not yet available in English.
-- Favourite sports: When he was young, the future Pope played
basketball, but he loved going to the stadium to watch soccer with his
whole family to see their favourite team, San Lorenzo. He lamented that
the fan scene is not what it used to be. At the worst, "people would
yell at the referee that he was a bum, a scoundrel, a sellout ...
nothing in comparison to the epithets they use today," he said.
-- Favourite city: "I love where I live. I love Buenos Aires." He has
travelled in Latin America and parts of Europe, including Ireland "to
improve my English." However, he said, "I always try to avoid travelling
... because I'm a homebody" and got homesick easily.
-- Favourite way to stay informed: Newspapers. He said he turned on
the radio only to listen to classical music. He had thought he'd
probably start using the Internet like his predecessor, the
late-Cardinal Juan Carlos Aramburu of Buenos Aires, did — "when he
retired at 75."
-- Favourite mode of transport as cardinal archbishop of Buenos
Aires: The subway, which he would always take to get around "because
it's fast; but if I can, I prefer the bus because that way I can look
outside."
-- Favourite pastime: As a boy, he liked to collect stamps. Today, "I really like reading and listening to music."
-- Favourite authors and books: "I adore poetry by (Friedrich)
Holderlin," a 19th-century lyric poet; Alessandro Manzoni's The
Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi), which he said he has read at least four
times; Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy; and anything by Fyodor
Dostoevsky and Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. The Pope recalled
that even though Borges was an agnostic, "he'd recite the 'Our Father'
every evening because he had promised his mother he would, and died with
a sense of 'religious comfort.' ”
-- Favourite music: "Leonore" Overture No. 3 by Ludwig van Beethoven
conducted by the late-Wilhelm Furtwangler, "who, in my opinion, is the
best conductor of some of (Beethoven's) symphonies and works by Wagner."
-- Favourite dance style: tango, which he said he loves "very much.
It's something that comes from within." He said he danced the tango when
he was young "even though I preferred the milonga," which is an older
form of tango with a faster rhythm.
-- Favourite movie: Babette's Feast because it shows the
transformation of a group of people who took denial too far and didn't
know what happiness was, he said. The sumptuous meal helps free them
from their fear of love, he said. He also likes Italian neorealism
films, which often confronted the social, economic and moral consequence
of the Second World War, but added that as archbishop he didn't have
much time to go to the movies.
-- Favourite painting: The White Crucifixion by Marc Chagall. The
scene "isn't cruel, rather it's full of hope. It shows pain full of
serenity. I think it's one of the most beautiful things Chagall ever
painted."
-- Favourite person: His grandmother Rosa, who helped raise him when
he was little, taught him his first words of Italian and passed on her
deep religious sensibility.
-- Favourite saint he turns to in time of need: St. Therese of
Lisieux. He kept a photo of her on his library shelf with a vase of
white roses in front of it. "When I have a problem I ask the saint, not
to solve it, but to take it in her hands and help me accept it."
-- Favourite virtue: "The virtue of love, to make room for others
with a gentle approach. Meekness entices me enormously! I always ask God
to grant me a meek heart," he said.
-- Worst vice to avoid: "The sin that repulses me most is pride" and
thinking of oneself as a big shot. He said when it has happened to him,
"I have felt great embarrassment and I ask God for forgiveness because
nobody has the right to behave like this."
-- Typical reaction to unexpected announcements: He freezes. When
Pope Francis was elected Pope and appeared at the central balcony, many
noticed he looked rather stiff. Turns out that's how he reacted when he
was named auxiliary bishop in 1992 and how he reacts "to anything
unexpected, good or bad, it's like I'm paralyzed," he said.
-- Things he would rescue in event of a fire: His breviary and
appointment book, which also contains all of his contacts, addresses and
telephone numbers. "It would be a real disaster to lose them."
"I'm very attached to my breviary; it's the first thing I open in the morning and the last thing I close when I go to sleep."
He also keeps tucked safe between its pages his grandmother's letters
and her last words to her grandkids before she died. She said that in
times of sadness, trouble or loss, to look to the tabernacle, "where the
greatest and noblest martyr is kept," and to Mary at the foot of the
cross so that they may "let fall a drop of salve on the deepest and most
painful wounds."
To rent a board and a wetsuit was only about 10 Euros for the day but I would have paid 100 for the wetsuit alone. The water was freezing. And not like 'freezing' here in Southern California when it is in the 60's, no, it was Irish cold.
