Pope Francis' 'skeletal' mail office gets almost 6000 letters a week

The office that deals with Pope Francis' mail reportedly receives about 30 sacks, or about 6000 letters a week, which would make a yearly total of more than 300000.

Although the pope tweets messages on Twitter but he does not follow anyone nor does he have an email account and likes to receive what one senior aide called 'old-fashioned letters'.

According to News24, although the mail that the tiny office receives is nowhere near to those addressed to Santa Claus, however, the four people working in a small, cramped room where cardboard boxes labelled by language are strewn on the floor and on desks, are swamped by the letters.

Head of the office, Monsignor Giuliano Gallorini, who runs the mail room with a skeletal staff of three women, including a nun, said that most of the letters are requests for comfort or prayers, adding that they are a sign of the difficult times nowadays.

Gallorini further said that the most urgent and personal letters are passed to the pope's two private priest-secretaries to give to him, adding that these are the ones that are a little more delicate and have to do with questions of conscience.

Letters about economic difficulties are sent to local Catholic charities to decide how the people can be helped, the report added.