Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is the 266th Bishop of Rome. He is the first Jesuit Pope, the first from the Americas, the first from the southern hemisphere, and the first from outside Europe since the 8th century.

As Pope, Francis is of course head of the Roman-Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. More importantly for us he is also member of the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs!

When in Paris for the 2018 Annual General Assembly of the Chaîne, we asked Bailli Délégué Klaus Tritschler what he knew about this. He gave the advice to ask the Pope himself on the next occasion.

By invitation of the Spiritual Embassy Board of the Holy See we were able to attend an audience with the Holy Father at the beginning of the year, on January 2nd to be precise.

We were granted a great honour namely to sit 'prima fila', i.e. in the first row. This enabled us to speak to His Holiness in person.

From the photos you can see for yourselves the outcome of this opportunity.

His Holiness was very friendly and asked us to extend his greetings and blessings to his friends of the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs.

It was indeed a memorable experience and a proud moment.

Vive la Chaîne!

Adrian Grandt, Vice-Chargé de Missions
&
Dr Thomas Buck, Chevalier