When meeting a group of students of Jesuit schools in Italy and Albania today, the new Pope answered questions from the audience, including one from a young lady who wished to know why he chose not to live in the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace:
"It is not just a matter of wealth, it is a matter of personality: I have the need to live among people. If I lived by myself, perhaps somewhat isolated, this would not be good to me. A professor asked me that: why don't you go live there, and I answered him: listen, professor, for psychiatric reasons! But it's my personality. The apartment - the Pope specified - is not so much luxurious, [it is] quiet, but I cannot live by myself."And then - he continued - I believe that the times speak to us of so much poverty in the world, this [poverty] is a scandal! In a world in which we have so much wealth, and so many resources to feed all, it cannot be understood how many hungry children there are, so many children without education, so many poor people. Poverty today is a cry, we all must consider if we can become a bit poorer. How can I become a bit poor in order to look like Jesus, Poor Master?"
[Transcript by Italian news agency TM Media, part of it has been edited out by some other news sources.]
