Pope Francis, as gentle as a dove, as cunning as a serpent

08 May 2025, The Tablet

Pope Francis had an ability to become who the person in front of him needed him to be, and a fondness for irreducible, paradoxical statements.

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If there is one thing we think we know about Pope Francis, it is that he was a simple man of the people. But just how simple was he?

If there is one thing we think we know about Pope Francis, it is that he was a simple man of the people. He refused the grand apartments of the Apostolic Palace in life, and in death shunned St Peter’s in favour of a simple stone tomb in Santa Maria Maggiore.

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