During his homily at Wednesday Mass in Rome, Francis emphasized the importance of “doing good” as a principle that unites all humanity, and a “culture of encounter” to support peace.

Using scripture from the Gospel of Mark, Francis explained how upset Jesus’ disciples were that someone outside their group was doing good, according to a report from Vatican Radio.

“They complain,” the Pope said in his homily, because they say, “If he is not one of us, he cannot do good. If he is not of our party, he cannot do good.” And Jesus corrects them: “Do not hinder him, he says, let him do good.” The disciples, Pope Francis explains, “were a little intolerant,” closed off by the idea of ​​possessing the truth, convinced that “those who do not have the truth, cannot do good.” “This was wrong . . . Jesus broadens the horizon.” Pope Francis said, “The root of this possibility of doing good – that we all have – is in creation”

Pope Francis went further in his sermon to say:

“The Lord created us in His image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and He does good and all of us have this commandment at heart: do good and do not do evil. All of us. ‘But, Father, this is not Catholic! He cannot do good.’ Yes, he can… “The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone!”.. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.”

Responding to the leader of the Roman Catholic church’s homily, Father James Martin, S.J. wrote in an email to The Huffington Post:

“Pope Francis is saying, more clearly than ever before, that Christ offered himself as a sacrifice for everyone. That’s always been a Christian belief. You can find St. Paul saying in the First Letter to Timothy that Jesus gave himself as a “ransom for all.” But rarely do you hear it said by Catholics so forcefully, and with such evident joy. And in this era of religious controversies, it’s a timely reminder that God cannot be confined to our narrow categories.”

Of course, not all Christians believe that those who don’t believe will be redeemed, and the Pope’s words may spark memories of the deep divisions from the Protestant reformation over the belief in redemption through grace versus redemption through works.

The pope’s comment has also struck a chord on Reddit, where it is the second most-shared piece.

More from Reuters:

Atheists should be seen as good people if they do good, Pope Francis said on Wednesday in his latest urging that people of all religions – or no religion – work together.

The leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics made his comments in the homily of his morning Mass in his residence, a daily event where he speaks without prepared comments.

He told the story of a Catholic who asked a priest if even atheists had been redeemed by Jesus.

“Even them, everyone,” the pope answered, according to Vatican Radio. “We all have the duty to do good,” he said.

“Just do good and we’ll find a meeting point,” the pope said in a hypothetical conversation in which someone told a priest: “But I don’t believe. I’m an atheist.”

Francis’s reaching out to atheists and people who belong to no religion is a marked contrast to the attitude of former Pope Benedict, who sometimes left non-Catholics feeling that he saw them as second-class believers.

Credit: Huffington post

Photo credit: coffeetimewithgod.wordpress

He is the God of the Holy Bible, the giver of life. He is the Holy One of Israel whose coming was prophesied for thousands of years by the Prophets before it came to pass. He is He that humbled Himself and shed His divinity, who came down as God incarnate in the flesh, who suffered on the cross, who shed His blood, who gave up His life as a living sacrifice for our sins, who went down into hell and overcame satan and the principalities and powers, who rose again, who ascended into Heaven and who sits at the right hand of God the Father.

He is He whose Holy Spirit guides, leads, protects and fights for us on earth today. He is He that is high and lifted up, whose train fills the Temple. He is He that is more than able and whose Kingdom shall never end. He is He that makes all things beautiful in His own way and in His own time. He is the Spoiler of our Enemies, our Advocate, our Defender and our Judge.

He is the Man of War, the Avenger of our Blood, The Ancient of Days, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Lord of Hosts, the Comforter, the Consumming Fire, the Alpha and the Omega, the Creator of all that is, the Prince of Peace, the Lily of the Valley, the Rose of Sharon, the Balm of Gilead, the Blood of the Sprinkling, the Rejected Stone that became the Cornerstone, the Nazarene, the Conqueror of Satan and the Great Provider.

He is the Author and Finisher of our Faith, the Lifter of our Heads, our Shield and our Glory. He is our Father who is filled with love, who guards us jealously and who never fails. He is the Lord of the Universe, the Lord of the 24 Elders that sit before Him in His throne room, the Lord of the Angels and the Archangels, the Lord of the Cherubims and the Seraphims and He is the King of Glory. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, He is the King of Glory.

His name is Jehova Sabaoth, Jehova Rapha, Yahweh God and the I Am That I Am. He is irresistable and unfathomable. He is the God of the Armies of Israel and the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Gideon, Jeptha, Sampson, Moses, Samuel, David, Joseph, Elijah, Elisha and the Apostle Paul. He is the Compassionate and the Merciful, the Adonai, the Elohim, the Lamb of God, The Risen King, the Messiah, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords- Yashua, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Son of the Living God.

We are created for His pleasure, He delights to prosper us, He displays His glory in our lives and besides Him there is no God.

Venue: Redemption Camp, KM 46, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

He was flown by helicopter from the Castel Gandolfo papal summer residence to live permanently in Vatican City.

Greeted by Pope Francis as he arrived, he was driven the short distance to his new accommodation.

Benedict, 86, was last seen in public on 23 March and there has been speculation about his health.

Observers said at the time he appeared more frail than when he stepped down on 28 February.

However, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said this week that Emeritus Pope Benedict was not ill.

Hours after his arrival, the Vatican issued a photograph of Benedict shaking hands with Pope Francis. However, unlike his departure from the Vatican, there was no live TV coverage of his return.

‘Hidden from the world’

Benedict will live in the converted Mater Ecclesiae convent just behind St Peter’s Basilica, with his personal secretary, Georg Gaenswein.

The building, described as “small but well equipped” by Mr Lombardi, includes an attached chapel, a library and a study.

There is also a guest room available for when his older brother, Georg Ratzinger, visits.

The Vatican said Pope Francis welcomed Benedict “with great and fraternal cordiality”.

The two then held a “brief moment of prayer” in Benedict’s chapel.

Benedict will now dedicate himself to a life of private prayer in the service of the Church, according to the Vatican.

His arrival heralds an unprecedented era of a former pope living close to his successor at the Vatican.

But at the time of his abdication, Benedict suggested he would not try influence his successor, saying he would live out the rest of his days “hidden from the world”.

At a meeting in March with Pope Francis, he also repeated “unconditional reverence and obedience” to his successor.

When he resigned, Benedict cited his advanced age as the reason, saying he no longer had the strength for “an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry”.

BBC

Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Europe Mainland European Convention.

Days: Wednesday April 24 to April 27, 2013.

Venue: De UITH of the Hague

Date: 19th April 2013
Theme: The Sovereign God
Venue: Excel, London
Time: Doors open at 7pm, programme starts at 8pm
Location
Excel Centre
One Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock
London E16 1XL
See map: Google Maps
Date:
19 Apr 2013 – 20 Apr 2013

“You can’t just make up your own rules,” Imam Isa Abdul Basir told New York Observer.

“It is un-Islamic for a woman to display her body. That’s not debatable.”

Abdul Basir’s daughter, Maryam, has grabbed headlines over modeling for bikinis as the first Muslim girl in the business in the US.

Her business, however, sparked uproar as it runs counter to Islamic teachings calling for modesty.

Some supporters argue that the concept of modesty differs from one country to another.

“The Qur’an doesn’t specifically state that you must be covered,” said Professor Asma Afsaruddin, an expert on Islamic law at Indiana University.

“It talks about modesty. And modesty is a cultural concept. What is considered modest in some Muslim societies is not necessarily what is considered modest in the United States.”

She cites hijab, an obligatory code of dress, as an example of the different concept of modesty among Muslims in the West.

“Some young women cover as an identity statement, to tell the world they are Muslims,” said Professor Afsaruddin.

“Others don’t feel the need for a statement. Their attitude is, ‘I’m confident of who I am as a Muslim, I don’t need to wear a hijab to announce it.’

“Reserving the right to interpret religion is becoming a feature of the Islam of young Muslim Americans,” she said.

Sociologists opine that the new model represents a new trend among American Muslims.

“Maryam Basir represents a normalizing trend in the American Muslim community,” said Dr. Mucahit Bilici, a sociologist at John Jay College.

“There are some prominent male American Muslim athletes and entertainers, not all of them what you would call pious, and there are a few outspoken feminists, like Irshad Manji.”

The United States is home to a Muslim community of between six to eight million.

Religious Awareness

Imam Abdul Basir laments that lack of enough religious leaders stumbles efforts to raise children according to Islamic teachings.

“We new Muslims didn’t have generations of ancestors to guide us,” Abdul Basir, a father of five, said.

“I wanted my children to be pious and knowledgeable. But only one of my daughters still wears the hijab.

“In the end, you meet Allah and you are judged. No one wants to see his child punished,” said Abdul Basir, who works as a prison chaplain in Michigan.

“So yes, it hurts my heart to see what Maryam is doing. I fear for her.”

But his daughter has a different opinion about her modeling career, saying she is working in a “godless business”.

“I’ve met models who were raised in Muslim homes, but say they are no longer Muslims,” Maryam said.

“That’s not who I am. I pray five times a day. I fast on Ramadan and celebrate the holidays. On Fridays I go to the mosque for juma prayers. I give zakat. I don’t drink alcohol or use drugs. It was important to me to marry a Muslim. And I definitely plan on making a hajj, inshallah.
“I’m aware that I’m not a perfect Muslim,” she said. “But I believe that Allah is not judgmental.” (onislam.net)

Is her job at odds with her faith? CNN’s Alina Cho reports on Muslim bikini model Maryam Basir.

But one passenger took his beliefs a step further by covering himself in a plastic bag for the whole of his journey because his religion forbids him to fly over cemeteries, Dailymail reports.

This was the bizarre sight that greeted plane passengers when an Orthodox Jewish man covered himself under a plastic sheet.

It was believed the man is a Kohein, a religious descendant of the priests of ancient Israel, who are banned from flying over cemeteries.

Many wrap themselves in plastic bags as a compromise measure.

The startling photograph, which has now gone viral after being posted on Reddit, shows fellow passengers straining over their seats to get a look.

Beneath his plastic wrapping, the man is dressed entirely in black, and appears to be wearing a Jewish skullcap or ‘kippah’.

As a controversial solution – not entirely allowed by those in the Jewish Orthodox – the plastic bag creates a kind of barrier between the Kohein and the surrounding tumah, or impurity.

Rabbi Jeffrey W. Goldwasser, of Temple Beit HaYam in Israel, explained: ‘In orthodox and Conservative communities, Kohanim are expected to abstain from coming in contact with the dead, which includes a prohibition on visiting cemeteries except for the funerals of close relatives.’

Even if they can be secured by a seat belt, the passengers wouldn’t be able to reach an oxygen mask or quickly escape the plane in the event of an emergency.

There is also the question of how they can breathe.

Pre-punched holes in the plastic are said to invalidate the barrier, according to Jewish newspaper YatedNe’eman.

Only if when the kohein is putting on this bag it accidentally rips can there be some leniency,’ the article claims.

‘Kohanim have a duty to protect their taharah, purity,’ according to the article.

‘They have been bestowed with extra kedushah which makes them worth of being meshorsei Hashem. At times, there may be extra demands made upon them in order to maintain that standard of kedushah and taharah.’

Some flights go to great lengths to take specific paths to avoid cemeteries.

And passengers can also be made aware in advance if a body will be aboard the plane in cargo.

The photograph, which was posted on the Reddit yesterday, had a caption which read: ‘An Orthodox Jew in an airplane with women – so he covers himself with a plastic bag…’

A strict code of conduct prevents Orthodox Jewish men and women from mixing in public, with Israeli airline El Al seeing an increase in the number of religious men demanding to be reseated away from women in recent years.

While ultra-Orthodox Jews do follow to strict guidelines which include gender segregation in public, it is claimed this photograph does not show that.

One user of the Reddit site wrote: ‘This has nothing to do with women. He is a cohen, descendant from the high holy priests of the temple and they are not allowed to walk into or fly over a cemetery, which would render them impure.’

It is not known when the photograph was taken, or what airline the man was travelling on, but it is more than likely it was an El Al aircraft flying out of Tel Aviv, which is surrounded by a number of cemetries, according to internet users.

In 2001, El Al Airlines decided not to allow ultra-Orthodox Jews cover themselves in plastic because ‘flight safety considerations do not allow for passengers to board while covered in sealed plastic bags.’

A year later it was reported that flight crew got into an argument with a passenger who attempted to fly wrapped in plastic. The confrontation eventually led the pilot to turn the plane around.

One woman even sued the airline after staff moved her to the back of a plane when an ultra-Orthodox man refused to sit next to her.

In case you missed it, read the story HERE

On Monday, a website posing as Osteen’s official webpage unveiled a “special announcement,” claiming the pastor of the Lakewood Church in Texas was leaving the Christian faith and bashed the Bible for being a “fallible, flawed, highly inconsistent history book.”

Osteen spoke with ABC News overnight and said he found the entire hoax mildly amusing.

“You know, I’m really not angry. I don’t feel like a victim,” Osteen said. “I feel too blessed, that life is too short to let things like this get you down.”

The fake website also rolled out a video complete with a screen grab of CNN’s website with the headline. “Pastor of mega church resigns, rejects Christ.” A Drudge headline proclaimed, “Osteen: I am no longer a Christian.”

The bogus site featured a letter title “I am leaving the Christian faith.”

“I believe now that the Bible is a fallible, flawed, highly inconsistent history book that has been altered hundreds of times. There is zero evidence the Bible is the holy word of God. In fact, there is zero evidence ‘God’ even exists,” Osteen was quoted saying in the letter.

There was an accompanying Twitter account that has now been suspended.

True to form, Osteen is turning the other cheek and spinning this bit of adversity as part of his core message.

“You can’t stop everything from happening, but you can choose to say, ‘God, it’s in your hands’. I’m going to move forward. I’m going stay full of joy and I’m going enjoy this day,” Osteen told ABC News.

While the leader of the 45,000 member church is adopting a forgiving attitude, he did not rule out taking some sort of legal action.

The website’s domain was registered to a group called BMG Enterprises in Milwaukee and it went live on April Fools’ Day. BMG did not return ABC News’ request for comment.

April 6, 2013: Onlookers gather at the house of Egyptian Christian, Samir Iskandar which was burned during clashes between Muslims and Christians in Qalubiya, just outside Cairo, Egypt. (AP)

Investigators said they are waiting for autopsy reports to confirm how the men — four Christians and a Muslim — were killed in a suburb of the city of Shubra el-Kheima, north of Cairo.

Police said the clashes started when young Muslims drew inflammatory symbols on an Islamic institute and a local mosque. Christian onlookers and Muslims nearby began quarrelling and soon residents wielding guns began firing on one another.

Residents interviewed by satellite broadcaster Al Jazeera Mubashir had different accounts of what sparked the violence, and said police arrived hours after the fight ended.

The clashes also resulted in a fire near a church in the area where the fighting took place.

Egypt’s Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the country’s 85 million people, have long complained of discrimination by the state. They are the largest Christian community in the Middle East.

President Mohammed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood party condemned the sectarian strife.

“Security authorities should take all measures to resolve the problem and religious figures should intervene to end the tension,” Freedom and Justice Party Chairman Saad el-Katatni said in a statement emailed to reporters.

Church officials in the neighborhood where the fighting took place, Khosoos, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Egyptian Christians fear that lack of security and political tension, along with hate speech by some ultraconservative Islamic clerics might give extremists a freer hand to attack churches and Coptic property, especially in the country’s poorer areas.

Read more: Fox news

Pope Francis has opted for the simpler hotel-style residence rather than the traditional palatial papal quarters

His spokesman said he was “trying out this type of simple living” in a communal building with other priests.

The decision reinforces the newly-elected Pope’s austere reputation. As archbishop of Buenos Aires he refused to move into the Bishop’s Palace.
Preferring more modest accommodation, he also often cooked his own meals.

Since the reign of Pope Pius X at the beginning of the 20th Century every pope has occupied the palatial penthouse apartment with more than a dozen rooms, staff quarters, a terrace and extensive views over the city of Rome.

But since his election Pope Francis has been living in a simple two-room suite in the Domus Santa Marta – a hotel-style residence built by Pope John Paul II next to St Peter’s Basilica.

And he intends to go on living there for the foreseeable future, according to the Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi. “This morning he let his fellow cardinals know that he will keep living with them for a certain period of time,” Mr Lombardi said.

He said he could not say whether the Pope would remain in these quarters in the long term. “It is still a period of getting used to things,” Mr Lombardi added.

Pope Francis will continue to use the papal library on the second floor of the Apostolic palace for receiving official guests and will appear on Sundays at the window used by previous popes to address pilgrims in St Peters Square.

About half the 105 suites in the residence are occupied by Vatican staff, who had to move out of their rooms to accommodate visiting cardinals during the holding of the recent conclave at which Pope Francis was elected.

The Pope will take his meals in the communal dining room together with other visiting clerics and permanent residents.

His simple new communal home contrasts with the much larger accommodation currently being renovated inside the Vatican for the future use of the now retired former Pope Benedict and his staff.

BBC

The legendary singer will minister in Lagos and Abuja and then cross over to Uyo, Akwa-Ibom state and its environs will worship with him, before his extended stay in Delta State where he will end his tour.

Find details of the tour HERE

A general view of Saint Peter’s Square is seen as the faithful gather during Pope Francis’ Palm Sunday mass at the Vatican March 24, 2013.
Image by: ALESSANDRO BIANCHI / Reuters

The new pontiff arrived in an uncovered vehicle to start solemn Holy Week ceremonies, which lead up to Easter, Christianity’s most important day.

Francis wore bright red robes over a white cassock and presided over the Mass from an altar sheltered by a canopy on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Cardinals, many of them among the electors who on March 13 chose the Roman Catholic church’s first Latin American pope, sat in rows for the ceremony held under hazy skies on a breezy day.

Sapa-AP

One of the children of the late prophet, Mr Joseph Obadare said his father lived a fulfilled life. He however informed that the family was waiting for the arrival of the eldest son before they can make further announcements.

In a statement, Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State said Obadare’s life, ministry and influence can be likened to those of saints, rare and uncommon.

“In his way of life, concern for the lost soul and uplifting of the name of God, Obadare stands tall among the prophets of his generation and broke barriers that health attempted to place on his way. He was consistent and controlled, aggressive yet unobtrusive and had no pretensions about his faith and God.

“Prophet Obadare made the life of the poor and the downtrodden his and helped many re-discover their connections to God.

“His strident cries against sin and warnings to those departing from what is right and just will be sorely missed.”

Earlier report…

RENOWNED television evangelist, Prophet Timothy Oluwole Obadare and Christ Apostolic Church, CAC, leader is dead.

He died at the age of 83 (1930-2013) after a long illness.

A CAC source, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed to AfricanSpotlight.

He died Thursday morning (March 21, 2013) at an undisclosed private hospital in Akure, Ondo State.

Before his death, Pastor Obadare was the founder of the renowned World Soul Winning Evangelistic Ministry (WOSEM) an evangelical arm of Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) based in Akure, Ondo State.

He was the second officially recognized Apostle by the Church, after Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola. He has been in ministry for about six decades, eagerly committed to soul winning. His revival meetings are renowned for the miraculous, with diverse spiritual and physical problems being solved by the power of God. His evangelistic outreaches took him to several countries in the world.

Details later…

Christian and Muslim clerics said the advert encouraged infidelity, rather than safe sex to curb HIV/Aids.

In the government-sponsored advert, a woman in an extra-marital affair is advised to use condoms.

Dr Cherutich told the BBC the advert had been launched because up to 30% of married couples had other partners.

Around 1.6 million people out of Kenya’s population of 41.6 million are living with HIV, according to the UN.

The Kenyan Anglican Church’s Bishop Julius Kalu said the advert, shown on free-to-air TV stations at peak audience times, had promoted extra-marital affairs and sex among school pupils, Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper reports.

“There are better ways of passing useful information to society. This one has certainly failed,” he is quoted as saying.

“It openly propagates immorality, especially when all family members are gathered before television sets, waiting to watch news,” Bishop Kalu said.

‘Embarrassing’

In a BBC Focus on Africa interview, Dr Cherutich said that while the advert had been withdrawn, he was unapologetic about its message – that it was essential for people to use condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids.

A survey had shown that between 20% and 30% of married couples had other sexual partners, yet a majority of them did not use condoms, said Dr Cherutich, the deputy director of Kenya’s National Aids and STI Control Programme.

Kenya’s Muslim religious body, the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK), also condemned TV stations for showing the one-minute-long advert.

“The advertisement depicts this nation as Sodom and Gomorra and not one that values the institution of marriage and family,” Sheikh Mohammed Khalifa, CIPK’s organising secretary, told Kenya’s Business Daily newspaper.

The BBC’s Anne Soy in the capital, Nairobi, says many conservative Kenyans supported religious leaders in opposing the advert.

Some parents said they found it embarrassing to watch the advert with their children, and switched channels when it appeared, she reports.

The advert was part of a series of anti-HIV campaigns that health officials have been running in Kenya for years.

Its slogan board said it had been sponsored by Kenya’s health ministry, USAid and UKAid – an apparent reference to the UK government’s department of international development, our correspondent says.

More than 80% of Kenyans are Christians, with Muslims forming the second biggest religious group.

BBC

Sister Martha Rabino, 71 – head of the Colegio de la Misericordia, a Catholic school in Flores, Buenos Aires, where Pope Francis attended preschool – says she’s heard all about his reputation as a boy and gotten to know him as an adult.

“All his life he has remained in touch with us,” she tells PEOPLE. “He comes spend the afternoon with us twice a year, when he gets all the nuns together and we have tea, and then we take mass.”

“As a boy, he was a little naughty,” says Rabino. “Sister Rose had been his teacher and died at age 101. He was very fond of her. He would always visit her … he would love to ask her, ‘What was I like as a little boy?’ And she would always say, ‘You were a devil!’ and he would laugh and laugh.”

It also sounds like the Pope, now 76, was a good student – perhaps with a penchant for math.

“He used to skip up and down the stairs while learning his two times table,” says Rabino, “repeating ‘two, four, six, eight’ over and over again!”

As for the Pope’s life today, his nephew Jorge Vallejos, 37, tells PEOPLE that the Catholic Church’s new leader has a family life rooted in tradition. And food.

“When we get together as a family we have big meals. We’re an Italian family from the north of Italy so our traditions are strong. We eat a lot of pasta, capelletis, stuffed calamari.”

Adds Pope Francis’s sister, Maria Elena Bergoglio, 65, “I can tell you that he listens to tango in his office while he works.”

“He lives very austerely. He has no car, he rides the bus or the subway, or walks.”

The pope made his comments in an audience with journalists, explaining why he chose to take the name Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi, a symbol of peace, austerity and poverty.

He called Francis “The man who gives us this spirit of peace, the poor man,” and added “How I would like a poor Church, and for the poor”.

Since his shock election on Wednesday, the pope has made clear that he would be introducing a different style to the papacy following the resignation of Pope Benedict last month.

On the night he was elected he shunned the papal limousine and traveled on a bus with other cardinals who had elected him.

The next day he returned to the Church-run hotel where he had been staying before the conclave and insisted on paying the bill.

In other parts of his Italian address, much of it unscripted, he said that Catholics should remember that Jesus is the center of the Church and not the pope.

Francis is taking the helm of the 1.2 billion-member Church at a time of crisis over the worldwide sexual abuse scandal as well as scandals involving intrigue and alleged corruption in the Vatican bureaucracy.

He said the Church, like any institution, had “virtues and sins” and urged journalists to focus on “truth, goodness and beauty” in the course of their work.

The morning after his election, Francis asked a driver to take him to the clerics’ hotel, the Domus Internationalis Paulus VI, where he had stayed during the run-up to this week’s secret electoral conclave.

“He wanted to get his luggage and the bags. He had left everything there,” a Vatican spokesman told a news briefing.

“He then stopped in the office, greeted everyone and decided to pay the bill for the room … because he was concerned about giving a good example of what priests and bishops should do.”

The spokesman did not disclose the amount of the bill.

Jorge Bergoglio brought with him a reputation for frugality from his native Argentina and is the first pope to take the name of St. Francis of Assisi, a gesture of solidarity with the poor.

Father Pawel Rytel-Andrianik, who lives in the central Rome boarding house where Bergoglio had stayed, told Reuters he was surprised the new pope had insisted on settling his account: “I don’t think he needs to worry about the bill,” he said.

“The house is part of the Church, and it’s his Church now.”