Cardinal Timothy Dolan has told reporters a surprising story of how the newly elected pope decided to take the bus back to the hotel Wednesday with the rest of the cardinals instead of riding in the Holy Father’s car.
Dolan said most of the cardinals had taken buses back to their residence in the Vatican and had lined up to greet the new pope as he arrived for their last meal as a group.
They were expecting him to arrive in the limousine that they had seen waiting for him at the base of the Apostolic Palace.
“And as the last bus pulls up, guess who gets off? It’s Pope Francis. I guess he told the driver ‘That’s OK, I’ll just go with the boys,'” Dolan told reporters at the American seminary in Rome, the North American College.
Inside the residence, during the dinner, Dolan said the new pope showed his humorous side.
“We toasted him and when he toasted us he said: ‘May God forgive you,’ which brought the house down,” he said.
He made them laugh again when he told the cardinals, who held seven days of pre-conclave meetings and two days in the conclave: “I am going to sleep well tonight and something tells me you are too.”
The new pope told the cardinals that on Thursday he would visit Pope Emeritus Benedict at the papal summer retreat south of Rome, visit a Rome basilica and, joking again, Francis said: “I also have to stop by the residence to pick up my luggage and pay the bill.”
Dolan, also shared his thoughts on the process and selection of Pope Francis, “a wonderfully simple man” with whom he was “impressed.”
“He comes across as shy and reserved,” Dolan said, while stressing “He’s a man of confidence and poise.”
There had been some speculation that since Bergoglio is a member of the Jesuit religious order, he may have chosen the name in honor of St. Francis Xavier, one of the first Jesuits.
“He quickly clarified that,” Dolan said.
Dolan said the election of Francis will be “a booster shot to the Church in the Americas, a real blessing.”
“There is a sense of relief in all of us because we now have a good new shepherd,” Dolan said. “He is an extraordinarily down-to-earth man … a man of confidence and poise, a beautiful sincerity and simplicity.”
“We’ll sleep well tonight, knowing that the church is in good hands,” the Archbishop of New York added.
Dolan also joked when asked if he was relieved that he wasn’t voted pope, saying he never took the rumors seriously.
“I’d like to say this, especially to the New York press: ‘I told ya so!’” Dolan said.
Source
- CBS New York
- Reuters
- Image: DailyMail.co.uk
