Pope Pays Hotel Bill: Pope Made Sure to Settle Account Before Leaving

Pope Francis is not the type of guy to walk out on a hotel bill, even if he is the Pope. The Pope made sure to pay his hotel bill before leaving.

After the election on Wednesday, Pope Francis returned to the clerics' hotel, the the Domus Internationalis Paulus VI, where he was staying during the conclave.

"He wanted to get his luggage and the bags. He had left everything there," a Vatican spokesman told a news briefing, according to The Economic Times.

"He then stopped in the office, greeted everyone and decided to pay the bill for the room ... because he was concerned about giving a good example of what priests and bishops should do."

The spokesman did not say how much the pope's bill was.

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, who was elected as Pope on Wednesday, was raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, making him the first pope in 1,300 years to be born outside of Europe. He is the first pope to taker the name of St. Francis of Assisi.

The hotel is owned by the Vatican and Pope Francis didn't have to pay it. Father Pawel Rytel-Andrianik, who lives in the central Rome boarding house where Bergoglio had stayed, told Reuters he was surprised the new pope had insisted on settling his account: "I don't think he needs to worry about the bill," he said. "The house is part of the Church, and it's his Church now."

Rytel-Andrianik said Bergoglio never acts as if he's higher than anyone else. "When we were eating at the table, you wouldn't realise he was a cardinal unless you already knew. He was just like any priest.

Rytel-Andrianik noted that Pope Francis doesn't even ride in the Vatican-provided cars.

"People say that he never in these 20 years asked for a (Vatican) car," he said. "Even when he went for the conclave with a priest from his diocese, he just walked out to the main road, he picked up a taxi and went to the conclave. So very simple for a future pope."

U.S. Cardinal Timothy Dolan also noticed Pope Francis' humbleness, even after he was elected pope. He turned down a special sedan that was going to take him to the hotel so that he could ride in the bus with the other cardinals, according to the Associated Press.