Yes, we’re definitely now getting a sense that newly elected Pope Francis is not just like newly elected President Jimmy Carter, who wore a sweater and carried his luggage for a little while and then seemingly forgot about it. You get a sense what we’re seeing is the way he operates and is with this story about him personally calling a kiosk in Buenos Aires to halt his newspaper order now that he will be away for a while.
The Pope has stunned the owners of a Buenos Aires newspaper kiosk, by phoning directly to cancel his order.
Luis Del Regno and his son Daniel delivered papers to the former cardinal’s residence every weekday.
Daniel said he thought it was a prank when a caller earlier this week introduced himself as “Cardinal Jorge”.
But, no, it really was Jorge Maria Bergoglio who called him — Jorge Maria Bergoglio, who came the first Pope from Latin America, after Pope Benedict XVI stunned people al the world by announcing he was retiring.
Each Sunday, the archbishop of Buenos Aires would come and pick up the paper himself at 05:30 before catching a bus to distribute tea to sick people in the suburb of Lugano, said Luis Del Regno.
When Daniel Del Regno answered the phone on Monday, he could not believe it was the newly-elected Pope, the Catholic News Agency reported.
“‘Seriously, it’s Jorge Bergoglio, I’m calling you from Rome,'” the Pope had told him.
“I was in shock, I broke down in tears and didn’t know what to say,” Daniel Del Regno told Argentine daily La Nacion. “He thanked me for delivering the paper all this time and sent best wishes to my family.”
“I asked him if there would ever be the chance to see him here again. He said that for the time being that would be very difficult, but that he would always be with us.”
Indeed. It says a lot not just that he called himself but he thanked the far less famous and far less celebrated guy who delivered his paper to him each morning.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.