The Francis effect
The following day, he was photographed settling his hotel bill. Instead of moving into the Apostolic Palace, he opted to live in a Vatican guesthouse, the Casa Santa Marta. This was also seen as a sign of the new Pope's humble style. But the decision was more complicated than it seemed: the Casa Santa Marta's rooms aren't drafty monastic cells; the Apostolic Palace isn't exactly the Hotel de Russie. Pope Francis later joked that he had chosen to live in the more sociable residence for 'psychiatric reasons'.
Francis's life up to his election was also far from straightforward. He was born in the teeming, cosmopolitan Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, in 1936, the first of five children of Italian immigrants.
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