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Pope Francis says TV 'not for me,' values being around people

He also said he misses going out for pizza.

By Ed Adamczyk
Pope Francis told an Argentinian newspaper, La voz del pueblo, he has not watched television since 1990, misses going out for pizza and values the company of other people. File Photo by UPI/Stefano Spaziari.
Pope Francis told an Argentinian newspaper, La voz del pueblo, he has not watched television since 1990, misses going out for pizza and values the company of other people. File Photo by UPI/Stefano Spaziari. | License Photo

VATICAN CITY, May 26 (UPI) -- Pope Francis said in an interview on Tuesday, he has not watched television since 1990, does not surf the Internet and spends about ten minutes daily with a newspaper.

He told the Argentinian newspaper La Voz del Pueblo the promise not to watch television, made in a vow to the Virgin Mary, has kept him from closely following San Lorenzo, as well as his hometown soccer team in Buenos Aires. The Pope also said he is kept appraised of scores and standings by members of the Swiss Guard, the Vatican security force.

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'I am under pressure. All those in government are under pressure. At the moment I feel the workload. I have a strong pace of work at the moment; it's the end of the school year syndrome with the focus on getting everything done before the end of June. There are a thousand things to be done and there are problems," he said in the interview. He added he never expected to become Pope, and misses the ease of walking down a street and slipping into a local pizzeria for "una buena pizza" ("a good pizza".) Take-away (food to go) is not the same. You have to go there."

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He added he felt the need to be around other people, a reason he chose to live in the Vatican's Santa Marta residence, where 40 others reside, instead of at the secluded papal apartment, when he became Pope in 2013.

"I'd make a lousy monk," Pope Francis said, adding that, for a legacy, he sought only to be remembered as "a good guy who tried to do good. I have no other aspirations."

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