From throne to popemobile: The pope’s ride rolls with the times
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — As he cruised past cheering crowds in Naples, Italy, earlier this year, Pope Francis received an unexpected gift. A local pizzeria owner jogging alongside the papal car jumped over a barrier and handed Francis a pizza, which the smiling pope willingly accepted.
While the incident delighted the crowd — and perhaps the pontiff, who loves pizza — it also exposed the pope’s vulnerability. Since his election in 2013, Francis has taken every opportunity to get close to his followers. That has included an insistence on riding in open vehicles, rather than the bulletproof-glass-bubbles that have been standard on “popemobiles” for more than three decades.
For 85 years, popemobiles have been carrying popes through large crowds, making it easier for more people to see the leader of the Catholic Church in person. The vehicles have gone through numerous iterations as the Vatican has tried to balance safety, accessibility, spontaneity and technological innovation.
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Before the invention of the automobile, popes could travel through crowds on the gestatorial chair — a throne carried by 12 men. This wasn’t a daily occurrence, however, as the throne was brought out only for special occasions. And popes weren’t the globetrotters they are now.
“Papal travels are relatively new,” says Paolo Naso, a religion professor at Rome’s La Sapienza University. And they’ve been successful precisely because of advances in quick and safe transportation.
The modern popemobile began taking shape in 1929. German advertising executive Robert Katzenstein, working for Mercedes-Benz, approached the German ambassador to the Vatican with the idea of creating a special vehicle for the pope.
The following year, Pope Pius XI was presented with a luxury car called a Nurburg 460, which looked like a traditional four-door sedan of the time but had armored plates for extra protection.
Mercedes-Benz and other companies made custom cars for subsequent pontiffs.
Everything changed in 1981 when Pope John Paul II was shot four times while leaning out of his open Fiat to greet pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square. The assassination attempt led the Vatican to significantly increase security on the popemobile, surrounding the pontiff with bulletproof glass.
Then came Francis. Last year he described the enclosed popemobile as a “sardine can” and said he preferred to be able to reach out to the crowds. “I know that something could happen to me,” he was quoted as saying, “but it’s in the hands of God.”
On his first papal trip to Brazil, he was presented with a brand-new Mercedes-Benz popemobile with open sides. He has since switched to a Hyundai. For his upcoming visit to the USA, Francis will ride in a Jeep Wrangler.
An air cargo company has already delivered several of the Jeep popemobiles well ahead of the papal trip. For his U.S. journey, Francis will need popemobiles in Washington, New York and Philadelphia, plus a spare, in case one of them breaks down.
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The Vatican as well as Jeep declined to say how much the latest popemobile costs. In the past, automakers have donated popemobiles for papal trips.
Regardless, Christian Seabaugh, an associate editor with Motor Trend magazine, said the Jeep should be a hit with the pope’s American audience.
“Pope Francis likes to have the image of a man of the people,” he says. “Jeep Wranglers are very common in the U.S. They’re accessible; they don’t scream wealth.”
Francis is unique among the world’s leaders in that he doesn’t travel in an armored “James Bond car,” Seabaugh says.
The Cadillacs used by U.S. presidents, by contrast, are heavily armored and protected against biological and chemical attacks, with a pressurized cabin like in an airplane. President Obama’s Cadillac, which he nicknamed “The Beast,” usually travels in a convoy with identical decoy vehicles.
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Eddie Alterman, editor of Car and Driver, said Francis’ predecessor was far more secure inside his enclosed popemobile.
“Pope Benedict XVI’s most-often-used vehicle was a modified Mercedes-Benz ML-class that kept the pope in a kind of bulletproof human terrarium at the back of the vehicle,” he says.
Even before Francis was elected, the Vatican switched to a hybrid gas-electric vehicle for its popemobile fleet.
Some now say he could go further, especially in light of his commitment to the environment. For example, the pope could move to a fully electric fleet.
Seabaugh points to one downside of fully electric cars: They need a few hours to charge.
But John McPhee, head of Green and Intelligent Automotive, or GAIA, a research facility at University of Waterloo in Canada, is more optimistic.
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McPhee argues that not only would a fully electric popemobile be very low maintenance, it would also improve security because it can accelerate faster than a conventional car.
Seabaugh and McPhee agree on one thing, though: If any leader were to begin using an electric car, surely it would be this pope.
