Four years “Formidable”crowned by the organization of the pope’s trip to Belgium last September, insists Patrick Renault. “In fact, I loved it. Every day I was spurred”he confides with a broad smile. “There is the setting, of course. We may know Rome In books, living there, discovering the Vatican through the entrance to artists, it is a huge privilege. Then, from left to right, from bottom to top, I was marked by the quality of the interlocutors that I never stopped meeting. Naively, I thought that the Holy See felt the old sacristy, that he was populated by courtyard. There are of course, but most people, priests, religious, lay people are both accessible and of high quality. Many are multi -card. One is engineers in training physics, another is a renowned poet. Think of the Portuguese Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça which is a literary summit. And they got their hands on the citch. When they talk about misery, they don’t tell what they have read in books … “
No women in the conclave: “History has forged the election of the Roman pontiff in this way, it is the fruit of an ancient tradition”
“How do you want to resist?”
“Then, you know, I lived from the protocol during my career … But if there are any who know how to put in full view, it is good at the Vatican. When I had to give it my letter of receivable (official letter which announces the appointment of a new ambassador)Pope Francis wanted to meet my whole family. We were told that a car would come to pick us up, and we were waiting wisely in front of the embassy. It was then black sedans who mounted the street and gentlemen that came out. Do you know the Pope’s gentlemen? They are the descendants of the great families of the nobility of Rome. ‘Buongiorno, I am a Medicis’, told me one,’ a sforza’m said the other … How did you want to resist? We arrived in the apostolic palaces, going from an incredible room to an extraordinary room, leading to a phenomenal corridor, accompanied by hallebardiers At least 3 meters of 3 meters, at least. To impress you, they know how to go about it … “
However, continues Patrick Renault, “If I may be proud of one thing, it’s to have laughed with the pope Whenever we have seen each other. It was everything when he told you. He listened to you deeply. On the other hand, once he had made a choice, if you wanted to make him change his mind, you could go to bed … Above all, he was a man of joy and humor. He also wrote a lot about it. And laugh with him, make him laugh, if I had only done that during my career … “
“Come on, I tell you one lastlaunches the ambassador by whistling a last glass of grapefruit. It was in the middle of July. Rome stifled in a bic heat. We were in the Vatican gardens to commemorate the Middle East and we all do in our Fracs. Then the pope arrived in his small golf car. The ceremony is happening, ends, he greets everyone and goes up in his papamobile. When he passes in front of me, I lift my thumb to stop. ‘Come on, go up, he makes me a big sign of the arm. Well, I had to do ten and a half centimeters with him, but on this cart, next to the pope, in front of my colleagues … Ahlalala, I assure you, I was proud like a rooster! “
Can you apply for the conclave?
