POPES HOLIDAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 370, 13 September 1930, Page 14 (Supplement)

POPES HOLIDAY

TO BE OR NOT TO BE? MANY SPECULATIONS. NEW HOUSE NOT BEADY. Foreign newspaper correspondents in Rome were recently wondering where Pope Pius N.L. would spend his holiday. They, in imagination, sent him to the Benedictine Abbey of Montccassino; to Alurancbc, iu the Vai di Aosta, where the Bishop of Aosta has built a summer retreat . jr his clergy un a spur of the Alps 500 ft. above sea level; to the old papal residence at Caste! Gandolfo, a few miles from Rome; and had even, in despair, de-

cided that he would stay in the Vatican, as he did last summer, iu spite of tho Conciliation, many new motor cars, and torrid heat.

Thj 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 tho Vai di Aosta is almost impossible. 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. “Tho difficulties of giving the Sovereign Pontiff adequate police escort between this aiid the Piedmontese Alpg exclude tho probability of his travelling by car# Tho same difficulty would have to bo met if he elected to go to Montecassino, which is half-way between Rome and Naples. So for this summer, at any rate, a long journey is cut of the question.

“Two alternatives remain. Either His Holiness will stay in the Vatican or he will go to Castcl Gandolfo, where Pius IN. and many of his predccsors used to spend the later part Z the summer. For this fashion of rushing from Rome 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 tho chase. A Bedroom in 1869. “But Gastcl Gandolfo will not be at all comfortable for Pius XI. The palace is out of repair and has not a proper drainage system. Tho Villa Barberini, recently requisitioned 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 tho constant shriek of motor horns cannot bother him. This house will not bo ready before the end of the year, as the foundations have only just been completed. “So it is more than likely that the Popo will, after all, stay in Rome again this year. If he does decide to spend a few days at Castel Gandolfo, ho will occupy the rather forlorn rooms which Pope Pius IX. saw for tho last time in September, 1869. His bedroom, with his small dressing-room, stands exactly as he left it, from his simple brass bedstead to tho large brass bowl used for shaving. “Tho inlaid writing table stands in the study where Pivs 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 tho rod throne and baldaquin, where the dust of sixty years lies deep. The Pope’s New House.

“This is not at all tho kind of homo to suit Pius XI., 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 house will be ready for next year. After all, ho is better off at the Vatican for tho present. “If he goes to Castle Gandolfo, the Popo will do it without pomp, almost without notice to the Italian Government. When he took possession of his ‘parish church’ of San Giovanni in Latcrno, Rome, a few months after

th Pact of Conciliation, only two persons were in the secret, the Commander of his Gendarmes, and the Archpriest of San Giovanni.

“The Pope left tho Vatican on a cold winter’s morning at dawn, and was back in his apartments before the citizens of the Vatican City State I knew anything about it. Tn this way he saved the Italian Police a great deal of trouble, and his 1. unediate entourage considerable anxiety.”