THE POPE’S HOLIDAY

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 September 1934, Page 5

THE POPE’S HOLIDAY

; ROME RESIDENCE UNSAFE. CASTEL GANDOLFO, August 1. For the first time since he was elected Pope over twelve vears ago, Pius XI. to-night slept away from the Papal Palace at the Vatican. Unnoticed by the villagers, he drove from the Vatican to this little hill town on the shores of Lake Albano, near Rome, on his first holiday since 1922. Later, when the news of his arrival had spread, villagers and holidaymakers gathered in the street and he went on to the balcony to bless them. The Pope had no choice about coming here. His architect told him the other day that the rooms which he occupies in the Vatican Palace are unsafe and that he would not be responsible unless they were reconditioned without delay. During the 40 minutes’ drive from the Vatican to his summer residence, he saw everything but remained unseen, thanks to the peculiar build of his motor-car, which has no windows behind or at either side of the back seats. On the Tiber embankment he met a funeral procession. The Pope told his chauffeur to slow down, and he bestowed tho apostolic blessing as he passed the bier. In his desire to avoid notice, the Pope wore the black cape of an ordinary priest over his white robes. The Pope’s decision to come out here was so unexpected that his audiences were rushed through an hour ahead of time this morning. An audience with two American bishops was cancelled after they had reached the Vatican. Early this afternoon orders were .telephoned here for his throne to be set up in the hall of the Swiss Guards near the old Palace. Another throne is to be put up under the trees in the park for public audiences. Cardinal Pacelli, the Papal Secretary of State, will motor out every morning for business, which is to go on much as usual. His Holiness has ordered all honeymoon couples to be brought out here for audiences in a special fleet of ’buses. No Pope has spent a holiday here since Pius IX. stayed during the summer of 1870 “to meditate upon death,” as he himself expressed it.

BEST SLEEP FOR YEARS. CASTEL GANDOLFO, August 2. Pius XI., who is on holiday at his summer residence here, rose at 6.30 thi§ morning. Aftei’ saying Mass in his private chapel he drove through the park and inspected the new dairy farm. He was in good spirits. He had slept better than for years past, he said, and liked the air. “It is lighter than the air of Rome,” he told a member of his household. ' He received several prelates from Rome, four American bishops and fifty nuns of the Sacred Heart. The Pope’s military household has now been arranged. It consists of four Noble Guards, who will escort him during audiences, and a picket of Swiss Guards, who act as sentries. There are also twenty Papal gendarmes in the building. - Before it was known that the Pope was to come out here, Italian and foreign. journalists had been invited to go over the palace and park this morning. The Pope gave orders not to cancel their invitations. Workmen have begun reconditioning the Papal apartments at the Vatican.