No paycheck for popes, says Francis in upcoming book

He is rash, and sometimes frustrated at not having his own cash to spend: Francis may wear papal cassocks, but they hide a normal man underneath, he says in a new book.

“I’m hotheaded, impatient . ... I sometimes make decisions in a hurry,” the pontiff says in a new book, From the Poor to the Pope, From the Pope to the World, based on questions collected from the world’s underprivileged.

From the slums of Brazil to the homeless in India, Iran and the United States, people from 80 countries put 100 personal questions to the pontiff, whose answers have been gathered in book form that will be published on April 1.

“How much do you earn? Did you ever have a girlfriend? What are your flaws?” they ask in the project by French association Lazare, which runs homes where young professionals and the formerly homeless live together.

The head of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics “played the game and was surprisingly transparent, even on very personal matters,” the association’s secretary general, Pierre Durieux, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

That included the self-confessed “dreamer” — a fan of the French poet Baudelaire — saying yes to the girlfriend question.

“Despite a crazy agenda, he took the time to listen to all the questions, right up to the last one,” Durieux said.

‘A bit absurd’

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who chose the name Francis — after St. Francis of Assisi — as a symbol that his papacy would put the world’s poor front and center, talks about his life, family, tastes, vocation as a priest — and intolerance for luxury.

“It hurts me that men of the church, priests, bishops, cardinals, drive in luxury cars and, far from giving an example of poverty, give the most negative of testimonies,” he is quoted as saying in the book.

He rejects all things bling, though admits he could not buy himself flashy things even if he wanted to.

“I don’t get paid anything. Not a cent! They feed me, and if I need something, I ask for it,” the pontiff said.

“People always tell me ‘yes,’ by the way. ‘We’re not going to fight with the pope!’ If I need shoes, I ask,” he added.

“My poverty is fictitious, since I lack nothing. But it is still a bit absurd to have to ask . ... It makes me less self-sufficient,” Francis admitted.

‘Brilliant sense of humor’

Loic Luisetto, Lazare’s director, said Francis was a “simple man... with a brilliant sense of humor.”

“We gave him a little buzzer to use if he didn’t want to answer. He never used it,” he added.

Over four meetings at the Vatican, Francis spoke virtually, in Spanish, to dozens of people in the project set up by Lazare and some 20 nongovernmental organizations from five continents.

“What would you ask the pope if he were in front of you?” participants were asked.

Any nerves about getting personal with the world’s top Catholic leader disappeared after the organizers, who were put up in the Vatican residence hall where the pope also lives, bumped into him going about his daily life.