POPE’S HOLIDAY

Grey River Argus, 11 October 1930, Page 11

POPE’S HOLIDAY

TO BE OR NOT TO BE. < MANY SPECULATIONS. t NEW HOUSE NOT READY. \ Foreign newspape correspondents in Rome were recently wondering where Pope Pius XI would spend his holiday. ’They, in imagination, sent him to the Benedictine Abbey of Mon tecassino; to Muranche, in the Vai di Aosta, where the Bishop of Aosta has built a summer retreat for his clergy on a spur of the Alps 500 feet above sea level; to the old papal residence at (’astel Gandolfo, a few miles from Rome! anj had even, in despair, decided that he would stay in the Vatican. as he did last summer, in spito of the Conciliation, many new motor cars, and torrid heat. The correspondent of the 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 Vai di Aosta is almost im- ■ possible. The 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 Piedmontese ' Alps exclude the possibility of his travelling by car. The same difficulty would have to be met if he elected to I go to Montecassino. which is halfway : | between Rome and Naples. So for < | this summer, at any xate, a long jour J noy is out of the question. r “Two alternatives remain. Either I his Holiness will stay in the Vatican lor he will go to Castel Gandolfo, where » Pius IX and so many of his predeces|sors used to spend the later part of the "summer. For this fashion of rushing from Rome as soon as hot weather . begins is a new one. In the days i previous to 1870, even wealthy Rom- * and stayed in town until September. . and then went to their villas ant) I castles fo" the vintage and the ’ chase. I A BEDROOM OF 1869. I “But Castel Gandolfo will not bo /at all comfortable for Pius XI. The 1 palace is out of repair and has not a

proper drainage system. Tl ? ‘Villar Barberdni, ‘recently requisitioned ]by A Government to enlarge the papal park, ! is too near the road. It will be used by those of his suite who will event- | ually accompany him on his summer t holiday. A new am) thoroughly up-to-date house is being built for him in j the most secluded part of the park,, where the curiosity of neighbours and I the constant shriek of motor horns I cannot bother him. This house will 1 not be ready before the end of tho j year, as the, foundations have only just been completed. “So it is more than likely that the Pope will, after all. stay in home again this year. If he does decide to spend a few days at Castel Gandolfo he will occupy the rather forlorn rooms | which Pope Pius IX saw for the last , lime in September, 1869. His bedroom, j with his small dressing room, stands exactly as he left it, from his simple | brass bedstead to the large brass bowl j 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, j upholstered in red rep and velvet, 1 still stands forlornly near the red throne and baldaquin, where the dust of 60 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 the new throne will be ready next year. After all, he is better off at the Vatican for the present. I “If he goes to Castel Gandolfo, the Pope will do it without pomp, almost without notify to the Italian Government. When he took possession of his ‘parish church’ of San Giovanni ■in Laterano, Rome, a few months af- ( ter the Pact of Coneilation, only two persons were in the secret, the commander of his gendarmes, and the ’ Archpriest of San Giovanni. I “The Pope left the Vatican on a cold winter’s morning at . dawn, and ’ was back in his apartments before the citizens of the Vatican City State knew anything about it. In this way ihe saved the Italian police a great j deal of trouble, and his immediate en- • tourage considerable anxiety. *’