On May 25, 2015, two years and two months after he was elected, Pope Francis gave this interview about how he sees and lives his life as Pope.

Pope Francis said that since being elected Pope, he missed being able to “go out in the streets,” or even “going to a pizzeria to eat a good pizza.” When the journalist told him that he can always order a delivery pizza, he responded: “it is not the same thing.”

“I have always been a ‘callejero.’ When I was cardinal, I loved walking the streets, and taking buses and the underground, I was delighted by the city. I am a citizen in my soul.”

The Holy Father also explained his need to stay in touch with people. “I enjoy the general audiences, both from a spiritual and from a human point of view. I get along well with people, I am in tune with people, it is just like my life is enveloped by people.”

He noted that “from a psychological point of view, I cannot live without people, I am not useful as a monk.” The Pope said that this is the reason why he chose to live in the Saint Martha residence.

“There are 210 rooms. We are 40 living there and working for the Holy See, while the rest of people are guests, bishops, priests, and lay people who pass through and are accommodated here, and I like this a lot. Coming here, eating in the refectory where everybody eats, celebrating Mass there, where four days a week there are people from the outside, like the parish priests. I like it a lot,” he said.

As far as his daily life…..Pope Francis said: “I sleep so profoundly, that as soon as I get in bed, I fall asleep. I sleep six hours a day. Normally, I stay in bed from 9 p.m., and read until almost 10 p.m.. As soon as one of my eyes waters, I turn off the light and I sleep until 4 a.m., when I wake up by myself, thanks to my biological clock.”

Asked if he understands the extent of his impact on people, Pope Francis said that he doesn’t know why exactly.

“I try to be concrete in the audiences, in things I speak about,” the Pope said. He used the example of the time he spoke “about the case of the separated parents who use children as hostages – it is something very sad – and made the children victims.”

He said he is also touched by circumstances involving “sick children,” especially those who are affected by “rare infirmities.”

The Pope said he also mourns when he goes to prisons. “When I am having meals with inmates, I think that I could be there,” Pope Francis said. “Not one of us can be sure that he will never commit a crime,” he added. “I feel pain for the inmates, and thank God that I am not there (in prison).”

He went on, however: “sometimes I feel that this gratitude is of convenience, as the inmates did not have the opportunities I had.”

Pope Francis said he doesn’t cry in public, but admits that there have been occasions where “I was about to cry and stopped right in time.” One of these instances, he said, occurred when he “was speaking about persecuted Christians.”

The pontiff also added that he’s not afraid of anything. He is “in God’s hands” with regard to any possible attempts against his life. He simply prays that, if it has to be, God will give him grace not to feel physical pain.

Pope Francis said he says this prayer because he is a “coward” when it comes to pain. “I can manage the moral pain, but I can’t manage the physical pain.”

Pope Francis also said that he feels the pressures of daily life like any person who governs. And he admitted that the intensity of his duties is weighing on him. “I am pushing forward an intense rhythm of work, as if it were the last year of school,” he said.

When asked if he likes being referred to as the “poor Pope,” he joked that he agrees with that title if ‘poor’ is accompanied by another word: “for example: the poor guy, the Pope.” Then he underscored that “poverty is the center of the Gospel, Jesus came to preach to the poor, if you take poverty out of the Gospel, you cannot understand anything.”

 According to Pope Francis, the worst evils in the world are poverty, corruption and human trafficking. He said that he always asks people to pray for him because he “needs it. It is an internal need.”

Pope Francis concluded the interview by saying that he simply wants to be remembered as a good guy.

This interview was conducted by Andrea Gagliarducci, an Italian journalist for Catholic News Agency.

Do spend some time today thinking about the life of Pope Francis. Do offer some prayers for him as he struggles in the hospital to stay with us. And do offer some prayers for the doctors, the nurses and the health professionals who are caring for the Pope.  

YOU WERE MADE BY GOD AND FOR GOD! UNTIL YOU UNDERSTAND THAT, YOUR LIFE WILL NEVER MAKE SENSE!

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