CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy — How does the pope spend his vacation? Most people would be right when they guess: reading, writing, playing the piano, walking, and praying. But who knew he also likes to feed the goldfish at one of the artificial pools in the gardens of the papal summer residence?
Thanks to footage released to news agencies by the Vatican Television Center, we got a sneak peek of some of the things the pope has been doing since he began his month-long vacation July 7 in this beautiful mountain town about 20 miles south of Rome.
The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, also published a rundown of the pope’s summer program just a few days ago saying the pope was enjoying a relaxing period dedicated to prayer and reflection. It said he also sets aside time to listen to or play music and take long walks in the afternoons with his personal secretary, Msgr. Georg Ganswein.
Because all public and private audiences have been suspended until Aug. 4, the pope has been able to catch up on a number of projects, most importantly, beginning work on his third and final volume of “Jesus of Nazareth.”
He’s also going through stacks of mail and preparing talks he will be giving on his upcoming trips to the United Kingdom, Sept. 16-19; Palermo, Oct. 3; and Spain, Nov. 6-7.
He’s also preparing for the Oct. 10-24 special Synod of Bishops on the Middle East as well as the apostolic exhortation from the World Synod of Bishops on the Bible.
Among the few special guests the pope will receive at the papal summer residence include his secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and the pope’s brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger.
From Aug. 28-29, the pope will host his traditional “Ratzinger Schulerkreis” (Ratzinger student circle) with former students of his. This year the topic will be the hermeneutic of Vatican II, a theme the pope talked about in his address to the Roman Curia Dec. 22, 2005. Here’s another interesting take on the topic.
CNS Blog 
the catholic church has too much money and people are dying without food…how dare the pope or his helpers have such luxury??? i don’t even had a doctor and i have a terminal disease
SHAME SHAME SHAME…JESUS WOULD CRY IF HE WAS HERE…AS A MAN
wooooooooow
You have to look past all that to understand how God works in our lives. The Church is rich because of the
Faith we have. The Church started with nothing it was very poor in the beginning and all the riches it has now came from God because we work every day to make the lives of people around the world better.
The catholic church feeds and educates more people than any other organization in the world. Read and learn what the Bible tells us. Everything we need to know about having a good life is in there. It took me 50 years to learn that. I am a born catholic. I was baptized and confirmed by the Church and to the Church. I have been absent from the Church for many years. I have been studying on my own and now I am ready to be back in Church and living my Faith every day. Since I started reading the Bible and with the help of EWTN have learned so much I have turned my life around and it just gets better every day, even with sickness and everyday problems. I have learned to cope and understand that people get sick, people die and get hurt in so many ways. that is not the Church or God doing it. We are doing things to ourselves. God gave us life and free choice to do as we please, and we are not doing a very good job. We make ourselves sick with stress, diet, worry about things that may never happen.
We get hurt by people and we allow people to keep hurting us. We do not report abuse, rape,etc. and we have a justice system that allows evil people back out on the street where they can continue to hurt people. So you see, if we would live the way God instructed us(Exodus20, The Ten Commandments) there would be very little crime and pain and suffering.
If we followed the rules of good and bad food (Leviticus 11, Dietary Laws) we could rid the world of many diseases.
Be faithful and learn The Word Of God. Your life will be better even with illness.