While the Pope is agitating the clergy to lead a more modest life, the former Vatican Foreign Minister exchanges two apartments for a residence of 700 square meters.
The former Foreign Minister of the Vatican has seriously angered Pope Francis with his plans to move to luxury apartments with a total area of about 700 square meters. After all, the Pope is actively promoting a modest way of life among the clergy.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, 79, was the first Minister and Foreign Minister from 2006 to 2013. He even stood at the head of the Holy See and his administration for a while, when Pope Benedict XVI unexpectedly resigned from power last February. However, after the election of Pope Francis, Pietro Parolina was appointed first minister.
Many agree that such an obvious squandering of Cardinal Bertone, associated with his moving from an apartment in the palace of San Carlo in the walls of the Vatican, will bring him misfortune. After all, the Cardinal’s new housing is located directly opposite the House of St. Martha of a simple Vatican hotel, where Pope Francis settled, abandoning the pretentious Palace of the Apostles, located on the other side of the square near St. Peter's Basilica, where the popes usually live.
According to Italian media, the cardinal’s new house will even have a spacious roof terrace. The Bertone residence will be approximately 10 times larger in area than the housing of Pope Francis after restoration this summer. In order to move, the cardinal changes two apartments: one 400 square meters in the past belonged to the head of the gendarmerie, and in the second lived Senior Bertone himself.
By the way, the three nuns who worked with him while the cardinal was the first minister also moved to a new place.
During the service of Cardinal Bertone, there were many disagreements in the administration of the Vatican. However, before his resignation in October, he expressed his disagreement with this fact and stated that he was the victim of the Vatican's “moles and vipers”.
Pope Francis, in turn, aims to create a "poor church for the poor" and calls on the clergy to lead a more humble life. Last month, he accepted the resignation of the German bishop Franz-Peter-Terbartz-van-Elst, nicknamed the media "bishop of trinkets" for embezzlement of 31 million euros for the reconstruction of his chic residence. U.S. Archbishop Wilton Gregory recently apologized for his mistake after he built a mansion in the vicinity of Atlanta for $ 2.2 million and made a commitment to sell the house.
