By Frank Wessling
“Preach the Gospel always. If necessary, use words.”
St. Francis of Assisi is credited with that action aphorism. Our new pope seems to be a walking example of what he meant.
The early knowledge that most of us got about Pope Francis was that he had been living in a small apartment at home in his native Argentina, that he cooked for himself and that he rode the bus to the office as Cardinal-Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires along with regular working folks.
We also learned that when he spoke to the cardinals following his election March 13 he stood on the same level, not on a platform above them. He also waved away a special papal car and rode the bus with his fellow bishops back to the Vatican residence they had shared during last week’s short conclave.
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