Pope will stay in hotel

Domus Sanctae Marthae located near the Gate of the Bells

Since his election to the Chair of Saint Peter, Pope Francis has been living in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the Vatican hotel which was built to accommodate the Cardinals who come to Rome for the Conclave.


When the Cardinals are not in Conclave, the Domus functions as home to a number of the priests who work in various offices in the Vatican (the priests and some of the Religious celebrated Mass this morning with the Holy Father in the chapel of the Domus this morning).  In addition, priests and bishops who come to the Vatican on business can also stay at this hotel, and now it will be home to the Pope himself.

Part of the Papal apartment in the Vatican Palace

Father Frederico Lombardi, SJ, Director of the Vatican Press Office explained today that the Pope has decided to forego the Papal apartments located in the Apostolic Palace in favour of a much more modest apartment in the Domus.  His Holiness will continue to use the suite on the top floor of the Palace as an office where he will receive official visitors and conduct day-to-day business, but he has already moved into the apartment in the Domus which was prepared before the Conclave to accommodate the Cardinal who would be elected as the next Pope.

The study of Pope Francis`new apartment

Father Lombardi has previously explained that the Pope wanted his living arrangements to be marked by simplicity and sharing.  The Holy Father has been celebrating his daily Mass in the Domus chapel along with invited guests, and has also reportedly been sharing his meals with the residents and guests as well.

This move should come as no surprise, considering the fact that as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Bergoglio refused the house that was the customary home of his predecessors and chose instead to inhabit a simple apartment where he did most of his own cooking and cared for an elderly cleric.

Pope Francis will use the top floor of the Papal apartments to meet official visitors

By choosing to set up his official residence at the Domus, Pope Francis is choosing much humbler accommodations than any of his predecessors.  It`s also going to be much less isolating, and perhaps he may be able to actually sneak out now and then for a stroll among the people of Rome (don`t count on that, but it`s a nice thought).  This choice of abode also makes sense from another point of view: unlike any of his predecessors, this servant of the servants of God came to Rome without any household staff.  The nuns who cared for Pope emeritus Benedict XVI when he was in the Papal Apartments are probably going to move into the Mater Ecclesiae monastery with him, and the nuns who were present when John Paul II occupied the famous apartments are long gone back to Poland.

Since Papa Bergoglio came without any of these, and since it was the custom that the household staff attached to the Pope - domestics as well as personal secretaries and aides - would also live in the Papal apartments, His Holiness would effectively be alone in the big house.  Instead, he prefers to be surrounded by priests: there definitely will be a different atmosphere in the place now.