St. Therese of Lisieux travels with the Pope: the story of two black bags
Friday, August 2, 2013 at 09:49PM
Maureen O'Riordan in Pope Francis, St. Therese of Lisieux, black bag

  When Pope Francis boarded the plane in Rome on Monday, July 22 to travel to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day, he was carrying a black leather bag. Since no recent Popes have carried their own bags, the story was widely reported (see the Catholic News Agency story).

 [photo credit: ANSA/Telenews]

A week later, on Monday, July 29, when Pope Francis held a press conference on the plane that was returning to Rome, the black bag was still of such interest that journalist Andrea Tornielli asked him:

 Holy Father, I have a question that is, perhaps, somewhat indiscreet: the photograph has gone around the world of you, when we left, going up the steps of the plane carrying a black bag, and there were articles throughout the world that commented on this novelty: yes, of the Pope going up ... it never happened, we said, that the Pope went up with his baggage in hand. So, there were even theories about what the black bag contained. Now, my questions are: one, why did you carry the black bag and why was it not carried by a collaborator, and two, can you tell us what was inside? Thank you.

Pope Francis:

It didn’t have the key of the atomic bomb! Alas! I carried it because I’ve always done so: when I travel, I carry it. What is inside? There is my razor, there is the Breviary, there is the agenda, there is a book to read – I took one on Saint Teresina to whom I am devoted. I have always carried the bag when I travel: it’s normal. But we must be normal … I don’t know .. what you are saying is a bit strange to me, that that photo has gone around the world. But we must get used to being normal, the normality of life.

[Courtesy of www.zenit.org]. 

 How inspiring that Pope Francis took a book about St. Therese with him to World Youth Day, of which she is patron.  Interestingly, in 1887, when Therese herself arrived in Rome on Sunday, November 13, 1887 for an audience with the Pope, and when she left Rome on  Thursday, November 24, she was carrying a black bag, a traveling-bag which belonged to her father.  She used it as hand luggage during the pilgrimage to Rome.  See the image below.  I wonder what it contained?

 

Louis Martin's traveling-bag; St. Therese used as hand luggage in Rome

 

Update on Friday, September 27, 2013 at 10:05PM by Registered CommenterMaureen O'Riordan

On September 27, 2013, the title of the book about St. Therese which Pope Francis took with hiim to World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro was disclosed in the press.  It was titled Teresa di Lisieux. Il fascino della santità. I segreti di una dottrina ritrovata” (Thérèse of Lisieux. The fascination of sainthood. Secrets of a rediscovered doctrine") published by Lindau. See the story "Pope Francis's white rose."  For a review in English of this provocative book, see "The real Therese of Lisieux and those letters that were tampered with" by Andrea  Tornielli in Vatican Insider.

Article originally appeared on Saint Therese of Lisieux (http://www.thereseoflisieux.org/).
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