Everyday brings a new story and a gust of fresh air regarding Pope Francis. First the Pontiff went on the bus with the Cardinals rather than take his new Sedan, then he paid his hotel bill in person just hours after being elected. If these two firsts weren’t enough Pope Francis then went walk about in Rome. Now the latest installment – he’s cancelling his own newspaper delivery!
Pope Francis surprised the owner of a News Stand in Buenos Aires with a telephone call to explain he will no longer need a morning paper delivered every day.
Daniel Del Regno, the son of the News stand owner, answered the phone, and heard a voice say, “Hi Daniel, it’s Cardinal Jorge.”
He thought that maybe a friend who knew that the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires bought the newspaper every day was pulling a prank on him.
Sensing the young man’s hesitation Pope Francis began reassuring Del Regno that it was indeed the Bishop of Rome.
“Seriously, it’s Jorge Bergoglio, I’m calling you from Rome,” the Pope insisted.
“I was in shock, I broke down in tears and didn’t know what to say,” Del Regno told the Argentinean daily La Nacion. “He thanked me for delivering the paper all this time and sent best wishes to my family.”
Del Regno shared that when Cardinal Bergoglio left for Rome for the conclave, he asked him if he thought he would be elected Pope.
“He answered me, ‘That is too hot to touch. See you in 20 days, keep delivering the paper.’ And the rest is, well, history,” he said.
“I told him to take care and that I would miss him,” Del Regno continued. “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.”
Before hanging up the phone, he added, the Pope asked him for his prayers.
Daniel’s father, Luis Del Regno, said they delivered the paper to the former cardinal’s residence every day.
On Sundays, he said, the cardinal “would come by the kiosk at 5:30 a.m. and buy La Nacion. He would chat with us for a few minutes and then take the bus to Lugano, where he would serve mate (tea) to young people and the sick.”
Among the “thousands of anecdotes” the elder Del Regno remembers is one involving the rubber bands that he put around the newspapers to keep them from being blown away when they were delivered to the cardinal.
“At the end of the month, he always brought them back to me. All 30 of them!”
He said he gets goose bumps whenever he thinks about Pope Francis’ simplicity.
“In June he baptized my grandson, it was an amazing feeling,” Del Regno said. “I know what he’s like. He’s one of a kind.”
This Pope seems like he is one of a kind and each story that emerges becomes all the more delightful. This will be a very interesting Pontificate and New York is eagerly awaiting the Pontiff’s first visit.
