Earlier this week, Pope Francis plucked two lucky 5th graders from Perugia out of a crowd in Vatican City to ride along with him in the Popemobile. This was just the latest of the Holy See's "Dancing in the Dark" moments; earlier this year, Francis stopped the three-ton Mercedes to give an ecstatic Argentine priest from his old Archdiocese a lift through St. Peter's Square.
The Popemobile, despite its unimaginative moniker, is a modern iteration of the sedia gestatoria, a throne of sorts upon which popes were once ferried on the shoulders of a dozen or so papal footmen. Since the introduction of the Popemobile some 80 years ago, the vehicle of the pontiff has often symbolized the intricacies of the post.
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