By Nicolas Senèze
Where will Pope Leo XIV live? According to the Italian press, he is expected to move into the traditional papal apartment on the first floor of the Apostolic Palace. The space, sealed after Pope Francis’s death, was formally reopened in Leo’s presence at noon on May 11, following the Regina Caeli prayer.
Because the apartment remained inaccessible, the new pope delivered the prayer from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica—rather than from the window of the Apostolic Palace’s top floor, as every pope has done since 1958.
Before Leo XIV can move in, however, renovations will be needed. The apartment hasn’t seen serious updates since 2005, after the death of John Paul II. Back then, workers spent three months upgrading outdated electrical systems (still running on 125 volts at the time), redoing the plumbing, modernizing the air conditioning and kitchen, and—most notably—building a library to house the 20,000-volume collection of Joseph Ratzinger.
Signs of decay
Following Benedict XVI’s resignation, Francis famously declined to live in the papal apartment. Concerned it was too isolating—“spacious but not luxurious,” he once said—he chose instead to stay in Suite 201 at the Vatican’s Santa Marta guesthouse, where new popes are housed after a conclave. Francis used the Apostolic Palace only for the Sunday Angelus.
Now, after two decades without upgrades and 12 years without a resident, the 10-room apartment is in rough shape. Weeds reportedly grow on the rooftop terrace, water has seeped through the ceilings, and pieces of decorative stone molding are at risk of falling.
In the meantime, Pope Leo can’t stay at Santa Marta either. Suite 201 was sealed after Francis’ death and would also need touch-ups after more than a decade of continuous use.
A temporary return to the old office
For now, the new pope has returned to the apartment he occupied while serving at the Dicastery for Bishops, located in the Palace of the Holy Office. Each morning, he walks from there across Bernini’s colonnade-lined street to his former office—but not before stopping at the Augustinian curia, his religious order’s headquarters, to celebrate morning prayer and Mass with the community.
Will this former Augustinian superior be comfortable in what Francis once called “an upside-down funnel”?
“People enter it drop by drop, and me—without people—I just can’t live,” Francis said in a 2014 interview with Jesuit journals. “I need to live my life with others.”
Pope Leo, who on Sunday morning celebrated Mass at the tomb of St. Peter alongside the new head of the Augustinians, whose community also serves at St. Peter’s, will have to find his own way to inhabit the official papal residence, occupied by his predecessors since 1870.
Credit: Catholic News
