Pope avoided papal apartments to preserve his ‘mental health’

Pope Francis said he had not wanted to become the pontiff and that he had decided against moving into the luxurious papal apartments in order to preserve his mental health.

Meeting thousands of children from Jesuit schools across Italy and Albania, he held a question-and-answer session in which one girl, Teresa, asked him if he had wanted to become the leader of the world’s 1.2bn Catholics.

“Anyone who wants to be pope doesn’t care much for themselves, God doesn’t bless them. I didn’t want to be pope,” he said.