Pope Francis marked 10 years as head of the Roman Catholic Church on Monday by celebrating mass with cardinals in the chapel of the Vatican’s Santa Marta hotel, where he has lived since his election.
The Argentina-born Francis, 86, became the first Latin American pontiff on March 13, 2013, succeeding Benedict XVI, who was the first pope in six centuries to resign.
“It seems like yesterday,” Pope Francis said in a podcast by Vatican News broadcast on Monday. “Time flies. When you gather up today, it is already tomorrow.”
Vatican News reporter Salvatore Cernuzio said that when the podcast was recorded at Pope Francis’ residence on Sunday, the Pope asked: “What’s a podcast?”
When it was explained to him, he said: “Nice. Let’s do it.”
The former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio has sought to project simplicity into his grand role and never took possession of the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace used by his predecessors, saying he preferred to live in a community setting for his “psychological health”.
