Pope Francis skips palatial appointment for modest 2-room apartment

July 30, 2016

By David Trifunov

This handout picture released by the Vatican press office shows Pope Francis at the reception desk of the Domus Internationalis Paulus VI residence as he pays his bill on March 14, 2013 in Rome.
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Pope Francis continues to break Vatican traditions while upholding his personal convictions, eschewing the palatial pontiff residence for a modest two-room apartment.

Since March 13, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires has occupied the room at Domus Santa Martha along with Vatican staff and visiting cardinals, NBC News reported.

“I can’t make long-term predictions, but for now it seems he is experimenting with this type of simple co-habitation,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters.

“It is still a period of getting used to things, of experimentation. Certainly in this phase he has expressed the desire to stay where he is,” Lombardi said, according to NBC.

The pope said Tuesday he has no intention of leaving the modest hotel-style building built by Pope John Paul II next to St. Peter’s Basilica, according to BBC.

Pope Francis will also eat with others at the domus in the communal dining room.

For the last 100 years, popes at the Vatican have lived in the penthouse apartment in the Apostolic Palace.

It features 12 rooms and servants' quarters, AFP reported.

Pope Francis has long made it clear he prefers modest living, having taken the bus to work as archbishop in Argentina, living in a small apartment there while caring for an elderly priest.

He also gave up his chauffeur and larger home in Buenos Aires.