Merchants in the Temple by Gianluigi Nuzzi Page B

the name Francis because his mission for the Church was to help the poor, in service of the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi. From the moment he stepped out on the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square in March 2013 to salute the crowd, he rejected all frills. He often wore simple, shabby tunics. He invited the homeless to the Sistine Chapel and asked the heads of the Church’s religious orders and administrative bodies to shelter the needy in their unused buildings, in the halls, hostels, and dormitories of the great seminaries that had been deserted because of the crisis in vocations.
    In addition to rigor and transparency, poverty and charity were the key words of his pastoral language and pontificate. He tried to foster this sense among nuns and priests in particular, starting with the smallest, simplest things, such as the use of motor vehicles. He discussed this at length during an audience with seminarians and novices on July 6, 2013:
    â€œI tell you, it truly grieves me to see a priest or a sister with the latest model of a car,” he declared, “but this can’t be! It can’t be … cars are necessary because there is so much work to be done, and also in order to get about … but choose a more humble car! And if you like the beautiful one, only think of all the children who are dying of hunger … You are all disgusted when you find among us priests who are not authentic, or sisters who are not authentic!”
    He was the first to set the example. When he went to the Italian island of Lampedusa to embrace the refugees arriving from Africa, he used a Fiat jeep provided by a parishioner who lived on the island. On a visit to Assisi, the land of St. Francis, he used a small car, a Fiat Panda. “When a priest from Verona gave him a Renault 4, the Pope accepted it but transferred it to the graveyard of papal vehicles.” 1
    Confronted by these words and deeds, unusual for a pope, there were many cardinals in the Curia who, after their initial surprise, tried to manifest their allegiance to the new era, but only in words and smiles. Their real attitude is better expressed by a joke that was making the rounds among their drivers: “They have left their limousines and sedans in the garage, and now they’re driving around in economy cars, a Fiat 500 or Panda, but they’re still living in the same luxury apartments.”
    The truth behind these words is apparent in the living quarters of the cardinals who occupy the highest positions in the Church hierarchy. Many live in luxurious homes in the heart of Rome—unimaginable realities for most.
    The story of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s home made headlines. By combining two apartments, he created an immense residence for himself on the top floor of the Palazzo San Carlo at the Vatican. This is not the exception, but the rule. The cardinals of the Curia reside in princely dwellings of 400, 500, even 600 square meters. * They live alone or with a missionary nun—usually from a developing country—as their assistant, cleaning lady, or housekeeper. The apartments have rooms for every whim and fancy: waiting rooms, television rooms, bathrooms, reception rooms, tea rooms, libraries, rooms for the personal assistant, the secretary, the files, and rooms for praying. And these dwellings are often in stunning buildings, like the splendid Palace of the Holy Office, immediately behind the colonnade of St. Peter’s Square: it dates back to the sixteenth century and had once been the headquarters of the tribunal of the Inquisition.
    The largest apartment in the Palace of the Holy Office—a full 445 square meters—was given to Cardinal Velasio de Paolis, born in 1935, a hard-core ally of Ratzinger and President Emeritus of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See. Slightly smaller is the 409-square-meter apartment of the eighty-one-year-old Slovenian cardinal, Frank Rodé. The former