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POPE

What will the Pope’s butler see?

A new butler was this week announced to serve Pope Francis. After the Vatileaks scandal saw the last butler banished, all eyes are on Piergiorgio Zanetti - the Pope’s new right-hand man.

Published: 19 September 2013 17:14 CEST
What will the Pope's butler see?
Piergiorgio Zanetti will work as Pope Francis' butler. Photos: (L) Alessandro Bianchi/Pool/AFP and (R) Elliott Brown/Flickr

Who is Piergiorgio Zanetti?

Piergiorgio Zanetti is a former policeman who this week was named as Pope Francis’ new butler. He is also related to a priest in the papal’s home country of Argentina.

What does being the Pope’s butler involve?

Zanetti will be the Pope’s right-hand man. Past butlers have been known to help the Pope dress and serve him meals. Papal Butlers also have the luxury of riding on the popemobile and joining the pontiff on foreign trips.

His will not however be allowed to wear one of the jester-like uniforms of the Vatican’s Swiss Guard and instead will most likely be seen in a suit.

Will Zanetti work alone?

No. He will also work closely with Sandro Mariotti, who has been serving Pope Francis since he was elected in March.

Two private secretaries, Father Alfred Xuereb and Father Fabian Pedacchio Leani'z, are also part of the Pope’s staff, Vatican Insider said.

How close will Zanetti be to the Pope?

The new butler will be welcomed into the Pope’s most intimate circles.

Few laypeople are allowed close relationships with the Catholic leader, whereas Zanetti will be at Pope Francis’ side both in public and in private.

What happened to the last Pope’s butler?

He was sent to prison and then banished from the Vatican, in what became known as the ‘Vatileaks’ scandal.

Paolo Gabriele was Pope Benedict XVI's butler until a dramatic fall from grace last year, after he leaked secret Vatican documents to an Italian journalist.

Gabriele said he acted out of love towards the Pope, but the plea was rejected by the Vatican court and he was sentenced to 18 months in prison. After three months he was pardoned by the pontiff, but thrown out of the Vatican.

How will life with Pope Francis be different?

The level of expected secrecy will remain the same, but Zanetti’s new boss has quite a different approach to the former pontiff.

Now that Pope Francis has been given an old Renault 4 by a priest, the popemobile days may well be over.

Zanetti may also be called upon to help with the Pope’s busy phone call schedule, as the Argentine pontiff has been busy calling the faithful in recent months.

Being at the side of one of the world’s most powerful leaders will also have its perks, such as meeting the Italian football team.

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POPE FRANCIS

Pope Francis meets Viktor Orban in worldview clash

Pope Francis met with the anti-migration Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban behind closed doors on Sunday at the start of a brief visit to Budapest where he will also celebrate a mass. 

Published: 12 September 2021 10:17 CEST
Pope Francis meets Viktor Orban in worldview clash
The Pope embarked on September 12 on his 34th international trip for a one-day visit to Hungary for an international Catholic event and a meeting with the country's populist leader, and a three-day visit to Slovakia. Photo: Tiziana FABI / AFP

The head of 1.3 billion Catholics — in Hungary to close the International Eucharistic Congress — met Orban, accompanied by Hungarian President Janos Ader, in Budapest’s grand Fine Arts Museum.

The Vatican television channel showed the pope entering the museum, but did not show images of the two men meeting, but Orban posted a photo of the two shaking hands on his Facebook page.

On one hand, Orban is a self-styled defender of “Christian Europe” from migration. On the other, Pope Francis urges help for the marginalised and those of all religions fleeing war and poverty.

But the pope’s approach to meet those who don’t share his worldview, eminently Christian according to the pontiff, has often been met with incomprehension among the faithful, particularly within the ranks of traditionalist Catholics.

Over the last few years, there has been no love lost between Orban supporters in Hungary and the leader of the Catholic world.

Pro-Orban media and political figures have launched barbs at the pontiff calling him “anti-Christian” for his pro-refugee sentiments, and the “Soros Pope”, a reference to the Hungarian-born liberal US billionaire George Soros, a right-wing bete-noire.

‘Not here for politics’

From early Sunday, groups of pilgrims from around the country, some carrying signs with their hometowns written on them, were filing under tight security toward the vast Heroes’ Square in Budapest, where the pontiff will say mass to close the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress.

“We are not here for any politics, but to see and hear the pope, the head of the Church. We can hardly wait to see him. It is wonderful that he is visiting Budapest,” Eva Mandoki, 82, from Eger, some 110 kilometres (70 miles) east of the capital, told AFP.

Eyebrows have also been raised over the pontiff’s whirlwind visit.

His seven-hour-long stay in 9.8-million-population Hungary will be followed immediately by an official visit to smaller neighbour Slovakia of more than two days.

“Pope Francis wants to humiliate Hungary by only staying a few hours,” said a pro-Orban television pundit.

Born Jorge Bergoglio to a family of Italian emigrants to Argentina, the pope regularly reminds “old Europe” of its past, built on waves of new arrivals.

And without ever naming political leaders he castigates “sovereigntists” who turn their backs on refugees with what he has called “speeches that resemble those of Hitler in 1934”.

In April 2016, the pope said “We are all migrants!” on the Greek island of Lesbos, gateway to Europe, bringing on board his plane three Syrian Muslim families whose homes had been bombed.

‘Hungary Helps’

In contrast, Orban’s signature crusade against migration has included border fences and detention camps for asylum-seekers and provoked growing ire in Brussels.

Orban’s supporters point instead to state-funded aid agency “Hungary Helps” which works to rebuild churches and schools in war-torn Syria, and sends doctors to Africa.

Orban’s critics, however, accuse him of using Christianity as a shield to deflect criticism and a sword to attack opponents while targeting vulnerable minorities like migrants.

Days before the pope’s arrival posters appeared on the streets of the Hungarian capital — where the city council is controlled by the anti-Orban opposition — reading “Budapest welcomes the Holy Father” and showing his quotes including pleas for solidarity and tolerance towards minorities.

During the pope’s stay in Budapest he will also meet the country’s bishops, and representatives of various Christian congregations, as well as leaders of the 100,000-strong Hungarian Jewish community, the largest in Central Europe.

Orban — who is of Calvinist Protestant background — and his wife — who is a Catholic — are to attend the mass later Sunday.

Around 75,000 people have registered to attend the event, with screens and

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