Seven reasons why Pope Francis will find it hard to be humble

Catholicism is big on symbols and Pope Francis has certainly been hammering home the message of humility in his brief pontificate with his (hitherto unheard of) habit of making his own phone calls, his rejection of much of the pomp and ceremony that surrounds his 2,000-year-old office, and now his decision to ditch the grand papal apartments in favour of more modest quarters.

But can a pope really be humble? Faith moves mountains, as my Christian Brother teachers used to like to remark, but here are seven peaks that "Father Jorge" is going to have to conquer.

(1) His name

His full title is "bishop of Rome, vicar of Jesus Christ, successor of St Peter, prince of the apostles, supreme pontiff of the universal church, patriarch of the west, primate of Italy, archbishop and metropolitan of the Roman province, sovereign of the state of Vatican City". It's quite a moniker to carry round when you are busy telling people you are at their service. Humility hitch: *

(2) He's infallible

Humility and infallibility are not natural bedfellows, and since 1870 the Roman pontiff is infallible in some matters of faith and morals. It is often assumed that the successors of St Peter were infallible from the start (though the favoured apostle did make his own howlers, as we recall in Holy Week, denying Jesus three times before the cock crowed), but this particular trapping of office was a late addition. Subsequent popes have only pressed the infallible button on one occasion – in 1950 to declare the Virgin Mary's assumption, body and soul, into heaven something that all the faithful must believe. Humility hitch: **

(3) He's virtually a monarch

The head of the Catholic church is virtually the world's last absolute monarch – ruling over his flock of 1.2 billion without the slightest nod at democracy, and governing the 109 acres of the secretive Vatican City state as a dictator. Humility hitch: ***

(4) He has his own bank

Though some have tried unconvincingly in recent years to present a chastened face to the world, bankers don't tend to be big on humility, and the pope is de facto chair and chief shareholder of the Vatican bank, which trades under the misleading brand of the Institute for Religious Works. It has been a embroiled in scandal in the past, and is said once again to be in an almighty financial muddle to rival its Cypriot equivalents. Humility hitch: ***

(5) His 'office'

Only the pope can say mass at the high altar of St Peter's basilica, a vast palace of marble, gold and priceless artworks. He even has his own canopy – or baldachin – to stand under, designed by Gianlorenzo Bernini. The "I'm down with the poor" message that Francis is so keen to promote may just ring a bit hollow if he preaches it from such an opulent platform, but he can hardly turn his back on the mother church of world Catholicism. Humility hitch: ****

(6) He won't sell off the Vatican's possessions

A burst of selling off of the Vatican's treasures may sound very tempting indeed to demonstrate in deeds as well as words that the papacy is now a humbler institution. But chipping the frescoes of the Sistine chapel off the wall in order to flog them to a private collector in Beijing, Dubai or Moscow may prove tricky technically as well as emotionally, and if the storehouse of the Vatican museums is emptied, the revenues generated by visitors will tail off too. Humility hitch: ****

(7) He has his own guard

Does a humble pope really need his own honour guard? His namesake, Francis of Assisi, made do with birds and beasts. But to disband the colourfully dressed Swiss Guards, who have watched over every holder of the papacy since Julius II (1503–13), would throw the incumbents on the unemployment scrapheap (there are not many vacancies requiring familiarity with medieval weapons). Humility hitch: ***