The new pope shocked the owner of a Buenos Aires newspaper kiosk when he personally called to explain he no longer needs his morning paper delivered each day, a report said.
Pope Francis — who has already earned a down-to-earth reputation since he was elected and moved to Vatican City last week — made the telephone call to his old kiosk Monday to cancel his subscription.
The kiosk owner’s son, Daniel Del Regno, answered the phone to hear the humble pontiff say, “Hi, Daniel. It’s Cardinal Jorge,” the Catholic News Agency reported.
Del Regno thought a friend who knew the former archbishop of Buenos Aires bought his paper there every day was pulling his leg.
“Seriously, it’s Jorge Bergoglio, I’m calling you from Rome,” the pope insisted.
“I was in shock. I broke down in tears and didn’t know what to say,” Del Regno said, according to La Nacion, a newspaper in Argentina. “He thanked me for delivering the paper all this time and sent best wishes to my family.”
Vatican observers have noted the difference in style between Pope Francis, who wears a simple white cassock, and his more elegantly dressed predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.
Francis put his humility on display his first day as pontiff when he stopped by his hotel himself to pick up his luggage and pay the bill.
Del Regno said that before the cardinal flew to Rome for the conclave, he asked him if he thought he would be elected pope.
“He answered me, ‘That is too hot to touch. See you in 20 days, keep delivering the paper.’ And the rest is, well, history,” he said.
“I told him to take care and that I would miss him,” “I asked him if there would ever be the chance to see him here again,” Del Regno continued. “He said that for the time being, that would be very difficult, but that he would always be with us.”
The pope asked him for his prayers before hanging up, Del Regno said.
The kiosk owner, Luis Del Regno, said the former cardinal had the paper delivered to his infamously humble home every day.
The cardinal also dropped by the kiosk at 5:30 a.m. on Sundays to buy La Nacion. “He would chat with us for a few minutes and then take the bus to Lugano, where he would serve mate (tea) to young people and the sick,” Del Regno said.
Among the thousands of stories the elder Del Regno recalls about the frugal new pope is one involving the rubber bands that he put around the newspapers to keep them from being blown away when they were delivered to the cardinal.
“At the end of the month, he always brought them back to me. All 30 of them!” Del Regno said, who added that he gets goose bumps when he thinks about Pope Francis’ kindness.
“In June he baptized my grandson, it was an amazing feeling,” Del Regno said. “I know what he’s like. He’s one of a kind.”