Buenos Aires, Argentina, Feb 18, 2014 / 14:01 pm
Pope Francis has renewed his Argentinean passport, according to Argentina's Ministry of the Interior and Transportation, and his new documents will be sent to St. Martha's Residence at the Vatican.
"His Holiness communicated with Juan Pablo Cafiero, our ambassador to the Vatican, and told him he wished to continue traveling around the world with his Argentinean passport," said Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo.
Therefore, the minister continued, "his application was filed on Friday through the digital center we operate in Rome."
According to La Nacion newspaper, Randazzo said that Pope Francis did not want any special privileges, and so the normal procedure for filing for a new passport was followed.
The process for obtaining the Pope's documents is the same as that "followed by all Argentineans," Randazzo explained, "in which a photo, his fingerprints and his signature were taken in around 15 minutes. In the next few days he will be receiving it at St. Martha's Residence at the Vatican, which he declared as his residency."
Randazzo said the Pope's gesture and his choice to travel the world as the highest representative of the Catholic Church using the same document as any other Argentinean "fills us with pride."