POPE'S HOLIDAY

Evening Star, Issue 20586, 11 September 1930, Page 18

POPE'S HOLIDAY

TO BE OR NOT TO BE MANY SPECULATIONS NEW HOUSE NOT READY. Foreign newspaper correspondents in Romo were recently wondering where Pope Pius XI. would spend his holiday. Tlvey, in imagination, sent him to the Benedictine Abbey of Mpntecassino; to Muranche, in the Val di Aosta, where the Bishop of Aosta has built A summer retreat for his clergy on a spur of the Alps 500 ft above sea level; to the old papal residence at Castle Gandolfo, a few miles from Rome; and had even, in despair, decided that he would stay in the Vatican, as he did last summer, in spite of the Conciliation, many new motor cars, and torrid heat. The correspondent of tho ‘ Observer,’ London, wrote on July 16: —“The Pope has been careful not to speak of his plans. But a journey all the way to the Val di Aosta is almost impossible. Tho half-mile of railroad and viaduct which is to link up the Vatican city with the Italian State Railways has not yet been completed. “ The difficulties of giving' the Sovereign Pontiff adequate police escort between this and the Piedmontes Alps exclude the probability of his travelling by car. The same difficulty would have to be met if he elected to go to Montecassino, which is halfway between Rome and Naples. So for this summer, at any rate, a long journey is out of the question. “Two alternatives remain. Either His Holiness will stay in the Vatican or he will go to Castle Gandolfo, where Pius IX., and many <if his predecessors used to spend - the later part of the summer. For this fashion of rushing from Romo as soon as hot weather begins is a new one. In the days previous to 1870, even wealthy Romans stayed in town until September, and then went to their villas and castles for the vintage and the chase. A BEDROOM OF 1869. “ Bur. Castle Gandolfo will not he at all comfortable for Pius XI. The palace is out of repair and has not a proper drainage system. _ The Villa Barberini, recently requestioned by Government to enlarge the papal park, is too near the road. It will be used by those of his suite who will eventually accompany him on his summer holiday. A new and thoroughly up-to-date house is being built for him in the most secluded part of the park, where the curiosity of neighbours and the constant shriek of motor horns cannot bother him. This house will not he ready before the end of the year, as tho foundations have only just been completed. “So it is more than likely that the Pope will, after all, stay in Rome again this year. If he does decide to spend a few days at Castle Gandolfo, he will occupy the rather forlorn rooms which Pope Pius IX. saw for the last time in September, 1869. His bedroom, with his small dressing room, stands exactly as he left it, from his simple brassDiedstead to the large brass bowl used for shaving. . ‘ ‘ The inlaid writing table stands in the study where Pius IX. signed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, and the solitary dining table, upholstered in red rep and velvet, still stands forlornly near the red throne and baldaquin, where the dust of sixty years lies deep. THE POPE’S NEW HOUSE. “This is not at all the kind of home to suit Pius XL, who has up-to-date ideas of internal sanitation, and spends his spare time in his private library. It is not worth while refitting these gloomy rooms for him, as tho new house will be ready for next year. After all, he is better off at the Vatican for tho present. “ If ho goes to Castle Gandolfo, tho Pope will do it without pomp, almost without notice to the Italian Government. When bo took possession of his ‘ parish church ’ of San Giovanni in Laterano, Rome, a few months after tho Pact of Conciliation, only two persons were in the secret, the Commander of his Gendarmes, and the Archpriest of San Giovanni. “Tho Pope left the Vatican on a cold winter’s morning at dawn, and was back in his apartments before tho citizens of the Vatican City _ State know anything about it. ‘ln this way he saved the Italian police a great deal of trouble, and his immediate entourage considerable anxiety.”