June 7, 2013

"I didn't want to be pope."

Said Pope Francis after a little girl asked him if he wanted to be pope. He also said — speaking with a bunch of children — that "he's living in the Vatican hotel for his 'psychiatric' health."

IN THE COMMENTS: Ignorance is Bliss said:
"...he's living in the Vatican hotel for his 'psychiatric' health."

The name's Francis..., but everybody calls me Psycho. Any of you guys call me Francis, and I'll kill you.

35 comments:

Ignorance is Bliss said...


...he's living in the Vatican hotel for his 'psychiatric' health.

The name's Francis..., but everybody calls me Psycho. Any of you guys call me Francis, and I'll kill you.

rehajm said...

^ WINNER ^

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

And some men have papal infallibility thrust upon them.

Ann Althouse said...

LOL.

The references I get now that there's Google.

All the surveillance is worth it.

For the laughs.

test said...

Lighten up Francis.

edutcher said...

I really like this guy.

Ann Althouse said...

If you have Amazon prime, you can stream "Stripes" free.

Ann Althouse said...

I'd like to see a fictional movie about a psycho pope, a sort of "Being There" but with a pope. I like the idea of a very simple man who can't deal with all the trappings and can't live in all the splendor and so forth. Not quite the same, but there's Anthony Quinn in "The Shoes of the Fisherman."

Meade said...

The name's Trooper York but everybody calls me Zemo. Any of you guys call me Trooper, and I'll kill you.
Lem: Ooooooh.
Zemo: You just made the list, buddy. Also, I don't like no one callin my ladies fat. If I catch any of you guys callin my ladies fat, I'll kill you. And I don't like nobody sayin nothin bad about my Yankees. Any of you homos say anything bad about my Yankees, and I'll kill you.
Drill SGT: Lighten up, Trooper.

Ann Althouse said...

Wikipedia:

"Set during the height of the Cold War, The Shoes of the Fisherman opens as protagonist Kiril Pavlovich Lakota (Anthony Quinn), the Metropolitan Archbishop of Lviv (or Lvov as it is spelled in the Movie documentation), is unexpectedly set free after twenty years in a Siberian labor camp by his former jailer, Piotr Ilyich Kamenev (Laurence Olivier), now the premier of the Soviet Union. He is sent to Rome, where the elderly fictional Pope Pius XIII (John Gielgud) raises him to the cardinalate in the title of St. Athanasius. Lakota is reluctant, begging to be given "a simple mission with simple people," but the Pope insists that he kneel and receive the scarlet zucchetto that designates the rank of cardinal. When the Pontiff suddenly collapses and dies, the process of a papal conclave begins, and Cardinal Lakota participates as one of the electors. During the sede vacante, two cardinals in particular, Cardinal Leone (Leo McKern) and Cardinal Rinaldi (Vittorio De Sica) are shown to be papabili. After seven ballots of deadlock, Lakota finds himself elected Pope as a compromise candidate (suggested by Cardinal Rinaldi) by acclamation after the Cardinals, unable to decide between the leading candidates, interview him and are impressed by his ideas and his humility...."

Deirdre Mundy said...

No man in his right mind wants to be pope. I imagine conclaves as a game of 'hot potato', with each papabile trying to redirect attention to that other guy, over there....

edutcher said...

Ann Althouse said...

I'd like to see a fictional movie about a psycho pope, a sort of "Being There" but with a pope. I like the idea of a very simple man who can't deal with all the trappings and can't live in all the splendor and so forth. Not quite the same, but there's Anthony Quinn in "The Shoes of the Fisherman."

No, you want something like the kid in "Last Action Hero" was daydreaming about as his English teacher was introducing the class to "Hamlet".

"There's something rotten in Denmark - and Hamlet's taking out the trash"*.

Y'know - Pope Rambo I - the Ultimate Crusader, He lets God sort 'em out.

* I do love the line, "To be or not to be (brrrrrp - bad guys mowed down). (shrugs) Not to be".

Renee said...

Cardinal Sean of Boston described the idea of being the Pope, as being trapped in a museum.

Well the Vatican does have an awesome museum for public viewing.

You are no longer you.

It isn't power, it is sacrifice.

That's the thing, people think priests/bishops have all this power. They don't. Their work is service and dealing with us parishioners who complain and whine.

campy said...

That's the thing, people think priests/bishops have all this power. They don't. Their work is service and dealing with us parishioners who complain and whine.

That's the ideal.

It's also the ideal for presidents/senators.

Deirdre Mundy said...

Priests have very little power, b/c they get moved every 6 years or so. The DRE's, Liturgy Nuns, and choir directors have all the power.

BigFire said...

The fact that he doesn't want the job means that the conclave made the right choice. This position should go to the one who doesn't want it for its own sake.

Mr. D said...

The fact that he doesn't want the job means that the conclave made the right choice. This position should go to the one who doesn't want it for its own sake.

I agree 100%.

Methadras said...

Come to think of it Francis, I really don't want you to be Pope anymore either. I had high hopes for you, but your obsessive compulsion towards the poor regardless of all else is a distraction and gains you nothing in the end.

Meade said...

"I had high hopes for you, but your obsessive compulsion towards the poor regardless of all else is a distraction and gains you nothing in the end."

Reportedly, that's similar to what the authorities said to Jesus.

bagoh20 said...

After watching that video, it led to end up watching most of "Two Lane Blacktop" (1971). Never saw it before.

Mary Martha said...

I'd like to see a fictional movie about a psycho pope, a sort of "Being There" but with a pope. I like the idea of a very simple man who can't deal with all the trappings and can't live in all the splendor and so forth.

There is the 2011 Italian movie 'Habemus Papam' about a Cardinal who is elected Pope and then has a panic attack when he is supposed to be presented tot he public on the balcony. They bring in a psychiatrist to try and work with him, and then he kind of 'runs away' into the city.

You can see the trailer on youtube. http://youtu.be/9qm0RdK6k1U

Renee said...

http://en.radiovaticana.va/m_articolo.asp?c=699446

When asked why he decided to renounce the usual papal apartment, he said it was a question of personality, not of luxury.

“I have a need to live among people.” he said. “If I were to live alone, perhaps a little isolate, it would not be good for me. … It is my personality. … It is not an issue of personal virtue.



Methadras said...

Meade said...

"I had high hopes for you, but your obsessive compulsion towards the poor regardless of all else is a distraction and gains you nothing in the end."

Reportedly, that's similar to what the authorities said to Jesus.


Hate to break this to you Meade, but in the time of Christ, 99.999999999% of everyone on earth was poor. Including Christ himself. Newsflash, there are still poor. Second newsflash, they aren't going away. Third newsflash, they have cost us 15 trillion and counting in the US and we have seen nothing in return. Nice try though.

carrie said...

But his view of helping the poor is not our current government's model. I think he would feed (and I mean food not junk food, beer, soda), cloth and house the poor, but not much else in terms of material things. He would also strive to give them the tools to better themselves, but I think the rest would be up to them.

carrie said...

But his view of helping the poor is not our current government's model. I think he would feed (and I mean food not junk food, beer, soda), cloth and house the poor, but not much else in terms of material things. He would also strive to give them the tools to better themselves, but I think the rest would be up to them.

Kensington said...

"Being There" is overrated. Can you believe the film even ends with outtakes, like some kind of "Cannonball Run" movie?

Outtakes. Watching Peter Sellers crack up.

Overrated.

Bender said...

The papal apartment is hardly luxurious. Yes, it is within a centuries old building that has some beautiful artwork in some rooms. But the papal bedroom itself is a simple, plain room, with a plain bed. What you might find in a college dorm room would be more luxurious.

The "hotel" is not that much different room-wise. The only difference is, as Papa Francesco says, there are more people around at Domus Sanctae Marthae.

Simon said...

Ann Althouse said...
"I'd like to see a fictional movie about a psycho pope, … a very simple man who can't deal with all the trappings and can't live in all the splendor and so forth."

Art would imitate life: That's essentially the story of Pope St. Celestine V.

Simon said...

Bender said...
"The papal apartment is hardly luxurious. Yes, it is within a centuries old building that has some beautiful artwork in some rooms. But the papal bedroom itself is a simple, plain room, with a plain bed. What you might find in a college dorm room would be more luxurious. The 'hotel' is not that much different room-wise. The only difference is, as Papa Francesco says, there are more people around at Domus Sanctae Marthae."

This can't be repeated enough. Pope Francis lives in simplicity, yes. But so did Pope Benedict; I think people get bamboozled by the glamour that it's in Rome, and it's in a building called (preposterously) the "Apostolic Palace." But the pope's private accommodations and appointments are very modest, as befits a bishop and the successors of a simple fisherman. It has been a very long time since Petrarch could recoil from the court of the Roman Pontiff, then residing in Avignon, and write: "Here reign the successors of the poor fishermen of Galilee; they have strangely forgotten their origin. I am astounded, as I recall their ancestors, to see these men loaded with gold and clad in purple, boasting of the spoils of princes and nations; to see luxurious palaces and heights crowned with fortifications, instead of a boat turned downward for shelter... Instead of holy solitude, we find a criminal host with crowds of infamous cronies; instead of soberness, licentious banquets; instead of pious pilgrims, foul and preternatural sloth; instead of the bare feet of the apostles, the snowy coursers of brigands fly past us, the horses decked with gold and fed on gold, soon to be shod with gold, if the Lord does not check this slavish luxury." (Quoted in ohn Julius Lord Norwich, Absoluet Monarchs 210-11 (2011). Yet to hear some people tell it, it's all Borgias from Avignon to Francis.

Anthony said...

While many who move up in the Catholic hierarchy are ambitious, I get the impression that some are moved up despite a lack of ambition, or even an ambition to stay at their current level. Are there any other important hierarchies where that's still true?

Anthony said...

While many who move up in the Catholic hierarchy are ambitious, I get the impression that some are moved up despite a lack of ambition, or even an ambition to stay at their current level. Are there any other important hierarchies where that's still true?

Methadras said...

carrie said...

But his view of helping the poor is not our current government's model. I think he would feed (and I mean food not junk food, beer, soda), cloth and house the poor, but not much else in terms of material things. He would also strive to give them the tools to better themselves, but I think the rest would be up to them.


You are missing the point. How much money has the church squandered on 'helping the poor'? The old proverb of teaching a man how to fish means nothing to the poor in general. Better to ask than to perform the labor to get. You are asking the poor to better themselves, but they never do. They are still poor in mind, body, and spirit. They produce rarely anything and take more than they give. Sorry, but the poor are truly a hopeless cause. Better to let them fend for themselves out in the cold to see if they can hack it or not.

Fr Martin Fox said...

Methadras said:

I had high hopes for you, but your obsessive compulsion towards the poor regardless of all else is a distraction and gains you nothing in the end.

Meade said...

Reportedly, that's similar to what the authorities said to Jesus.

About Methadras' comment, all one can do is shake ones head.

But I'm not sure what comments you have in mind, Meade; perhaps you mean more the criticism our Lord received for spending time with sinners? Or maybe I should go to bed, and in the morning I'll get the reference.

Fr Martin Fox said...

Methadras:

Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia said it best, in a homily some years ago (while in Denver):

If we forget the poor, we will go to hell.

Exactly right; that's what our Lord taught.

The Archbishop actually made people repeat it.

Anonymous said...

Once again Meth has shown the Althouse commentariat what a truly despicable hypocrite and hater looks like. It is obvious he hates poor people too, no surprise there. Enjoy your stay in the burning fires of hell Meth.