These are not the reformers you are looking for.
Humility has never come with a spokesman.
You know those million dollar Super Bowl ads that praise a $100k donation from the advertiser; that's the introduction of Pope Francis I.
If the Vatican really understood the humility that they attribute to Francis, they would also understand that recognizing it in a press statement is inappropriate.
At a Vatican press conference, details also emerged about the new pope's humble reaction to his election. Francis declined to use a private car with the license plate SCV1 - Vatican City 1 - to return to the cardinals' dormitory after the vote. "He said, 'I'll take the bus (that shuttled the cardinals to the Sistine Chapel), since that's the way I came here,'" said spokesman Rev. Thomas Rosica.
As a simple-living archbishop in Argentina, Bergoglio shunned the official residence for a small apartment where he cooked for himself. He sometimes took the bus through the urban maze of Buenos Aires.
"If he brings that same desire for a simple lifestyle to the papal court, I think they are all going to be in shock," the Rev Thomas Reese, author of an authoritative book on the Vatican,told the Associated Press. "This may not be a man who wants to wear silk and furs."
Following his first outing as pope to the Rome basilica on Thursday, Francis went back to the clergy house in a city centre side street where he had been staying ahead of the conclave that elected him on Wednesday.
"He packed his bags and then he went to pay the bill for his room so as to set a good example," said Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi.
On Sunday he will deliver the regular Angelus to St. Peter’s Square from the window of the apartment, even if work is not finished, said Lombardi. That appearance will be followed on Tuesday by his official installation ceremony in St. Peter’s Square.
A truly humbled Vatican wouldn't issue press releases about a Pope taking public transportation to his private luxury apartment. (1)
A truly humbled Vatican wouldn't issue press releases suggesting the possibility of a Pope living like anyone else and not wearing silk and furs.
A truly humbled Vatican wouldn't issue press releases about a Pope paying his legally owed bills.
A truly humbled Vatican wouldn't issue press releases about the incredible humility it takes for a Pope to deliver a sermon from an unfinished luxurious balcony.
This is disgusting.
(1) I can only assume they are luxurious, as a google search about the Cardinals' Dormitory was dominated by press articles touting Francis' humility.