Most of the time, Pope Francis is at the Vatican.
He’s there right now, together with two hundred bishops, at a summit which he convened to address the global crisis facing the Church of Rome: long-standing patterns of sexual abuse committed by Catholic clergy (the Southern Baptists have the same problem too; in fact, all religious denominations do, but recently, the spotlight has been more on the Catholics than on others).
Celibacy, of course, is foundational in the Roman Catholic Church, for (in the view of your solitary reporter) rather obscure historical and theological reasoning.
Celibacy among humans is extraordinarily difficult to maintain.
Another aspect of Catholic doctrine which has always puzzleld your solitary reporter (who is a Protestant) is that non-Catholic Christians are not allowed to receive The Eucharist.
Pope Francis (formerly Jorge Mario Bergoglio, born and raised in Argentina) has been known throughout his life for his humility — perhaps because he long ago memorized T.S. Eliot’s dictum, “humility is endless" (East Coker).
Your solitary reporlter, a world traveller and a student of theology, managed (surreptitiously) to gain entrance early this morning to Francis’ summit with the bishops.
“My friends,” Francis said, addressing the bishops, and unaware that the solitary reporter was in the room, "in addition to taking bold steps to achieve best practices today for accountability in Christ’s Church with respect to how clergy interact with the most vulnerable, we are now obliged, after centuries of neglecting the issue, to proclaim that Christ always and forever wanted all Christians to be entitled to receive the sacred host, which we revere as The Eucharist.”
That’s when an enormous tumult began, as the bishops were so scandalized by Francis’ announcement that his life was in danger for a nanosecond; but the solitary reporter gratefully received The Eucharist from Francis, and then immediatley teleported himself back to his home in Denver, where he promptly proclaimed the Good News that all Christians are now free to receive the Eucharist in any Catholic church anywhere in the world.