Leo XIV inaugurated Sunday, expected to occupy papal residence
VATICAN CITY—Leo XIV is expected to live in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, where renovation works are underway ahead of his papal inauguration on Sunday, a senior Vatican official who declined to be named told Reuters.
The papal apartments occupy the top floor of the palace, a 16th-century building that overlooks St. Peter’s Square. They feature about 10 rooms, including a bedroom, private library and study, dining room, kitchen and chapel.
Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni declined to answer a question on Friday about where Leo would live.
Another official said the Vatican thought it would be easier to provide security for the new pope at the palace than at the hotel facility where Francis had lived.
Grand trappings
Francis, who died on April 21 after leading the Church for 12 years, was the first pope since 1870 not to live in the palace, choosing instead to have his residence in the Vatican’s Santa Marta hotel, a facility near the city state’s southern wall that houses visiting priests and other Vatican guests.
Francis was not fond of some of the grand trappings of the papacy and said he preferred to live in a community setting for his “psychological health.”
The late Pope did, however, use the palace for his official meetings, and usually offered his weekly Sunday prayer from a window of the building.
The palace has not been lived in since February 2013, when Pope Benedict XVI moved out following his resignation as Pontiff.
The former Cardinal Robert Prevost, who was elected Pontiff on May 8, is currently living in an apartment that he was previously using at the building that houses the Vatican’s doctrinal office near St. Peter’s.
Renovation works are expected to include modernization of the bathrooms and will also address damp in the walls, Italian media reported.
