Today my transit-obsessed colleague (who also happens to be Catholic) sent me this Huffington Post piece, which shares a few fun facts about the newly selected Pope. Fun fact #3 …

He rides a bus to work, and gave up his chauffeured limousine, wears an ordinary priest’s robe and lives with an older priest in a simple apartment where he cooks his own meals, rather than live at the luxurious residence he was entitled to as Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

Bus riding is often used as evidence that someone is making a sacrifice, and this description of Pope Francis is no exception. Leaving aside the fact that it is perfectly appropriate for a man who has devoted his life to God to not ride in a chauffeured limousine, it’s also perfectly possible (in fact, probable) that he actually likes riding transit. And this possibility makes me inclined to like him. (Actually, either possibility makes me inclined to like him.)

Now if he can just meet up with those bus riding nuns…