The first steps taken by Pope Leo XIV at the helm of the Church are largely satisfying the expectations of the cardinals who elected him. The eminent prelates were looking for a good shepherd, but even more so they trusted that the new pontiff would be able to restore balance to a form of government that, under Pope Francis, had taken on authoritarian tendencies and destabilized the clergy and the faithful with numerous acts considered overly bold.
Leone has first of all reestablished—with kindness but firmness—the dignity proper to the Supreme Pontiff with small but significant gestures. The new Pope willingly accepts the kissing of his hand as a sign of respect and reverence, but woe betide anyone who asks him for a selfie, a symbol of the pop decadence to which Bergoglio had become so accustomed. Even his outward appearance has returned to that befitting the successor of Peter, with more appropriate and formal attire: the Pope wears the choral vestments (rocchetto and red mozzetta over the cassock) on formal occasions and wears the Fisherman's Ring he received last Sunday on a daily basis.
Furthermore, since the evening of his election, Leone has not slept in Santa Marta, preferring to stay temporarily in the house where he lived as cardinal in the Palazzo Sant'Uffizio.
The Pope broke the seals of the papal apartment on the third floor of the Apostolic Palace, viewing the rooms where all his predecessors lived from 1870 to 2013 and where he intends to settle as soon as the necessary renovation work has been carried out.
During his twelve years in Santa Marta, Francis caused several problems of public order and security, but also economic problems. The famous “fifty square meters” where Bergoglio stayed in the hotel intended for cardinals in conclave gradually became numerous rooms until they occupied the entire second floor. A kitchen, a reception room, a private chapel, and several rooms for his closest collaborators have been set up in recent years, making the spaces in Santa Marta used by the pontiff much larger than the historic papal apartment.
All this has involved a great deal of work and, above all, maintenance, not to mention the doubling of security, which must be guaranteed at the Apostolic Palace, making it necessary to hire new gendarmerie officers and enlist numerous additional Swiss guards compared to the past. The costs of the operation, which are anything but modest, have risen over the years, reaching the hyperbolic figure of almost two hundred thousand euros per month for the management of Santa Marta during the last period of Francis' reign.
Leone has therefore decided to carry out his function with dignity and wisdom: he will live where the popes have always stayed, and Santa Marta will return to its ordinary use.
(Translated from Il Tempo)
