ROME – Pope Francis has long lamented that he cannot walk around the city unnoticed, as he did before becoming pope. However, he still seems to have a good sense of humor after he was captured on camera this week when he visited a record store in Rome without warning.
Francis wrote a note to a Vatican correspondent who happened to be in the right place at the right time on Tuesday night when the pope I got out of the Vatican Blessings for the newly renovated Stereo Sound store near the Pantheon.
Francis was filmed leaving the store by Javier Martiness-Proals, director of Rome Reports, a video that became widely available and recorded in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.
Martiness-Brocal then wrote a note to the pope explaining that he was not a paparazzi and regretting that Francis could no longer move unnoticed, but added that the story provided much-needed news to the world trapped in the tragedy.
“I will not deny that it was (unfortunate) that a journalist was waiting on the taxi line after all the precautions had been taken,” Francis replied. But he added, “You can’t lose your sense of humor.”
Francis wrote a small handwriting with his trademark, then reiterated that what he misses most when he was a father is no longer able to walk, as he did in Buenos Aires. Former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoljo is famous for traveling by public transport in the Argentine capital, avoiding the private cars normally used by his fellow cardinals to visit the parishes. He became pope in 2013.
Francis admitted that Martiness-Broval was only doing his job as a journalist when he recorded the event. “Thank you for your invitation, even if it hardly affected the Pope,” he said sarcastically.
The shopkeepers later told the Associated Press that Francis had arrived without warning at around 7 pm, having said he had been visiting during a previous meeting in the Vatican. “He went into the store and it was a great meeting. As promised, bless the store, ”said store owner Tiziana Esposito.
Co-owner Danilo Gennio said Francis was a long-time client he visited whenever he was in Rome for meetings at the Vatican, when he was a priest, archbishop and then cardinal in Buenos Aires.
“When he came to Rome to go to the Vatican, he first came here to buy presents,” he said.
Francis, who grew up listening to opera radio and loves tango, Mozart and Wagner, didn’t buy anything this time. But the shopkeepers gave him a CD with classical music.
– Associated Press
–
