Reuters is reporting that Pope Francis has received a 1984 Renault 4 economy car with 186,000 miles from a priest from northern Italy. Father Renzo Zocca donated the car in response to an appeal made by the pope several months ago in which he asked priests to avoid driving expensive cars.
After those remarks, the 70 year-old Father Zocca wrote to Francis, saying he had been driving the same car for decades and wanted to give it to the pope as a symbolic gift.
Pope Francis accepted the gift and took it for a test drive around Vatican City.
Coincidentally, the Holy Father was familiar with the car because he used to drive a Renault 4 in Argentina.
"I think the pope will drive it a bit himself inside the Vatican," the Holy See's deputy spokesman, Father Ciro Benedettini, said on Thursday.
In the few short months of his papacy, the faithful are used to seeing the Pope in modest cars such as a Ford Focus from the Vatican's car pool and the silver Fiat he drove in while visiting Rio de Janiero this summer.
Zocca told the Italian Christian magazine, Famiglia Cristiana, that even though it only snows in Rome once every 25 years, a set of snow tires are in the trunk just in case.
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