Some have been puzzled by Pope Francis’s recommendations for New Year Resolutions. But they are easily explicable.

This apparently random list gives us a treasured insight, on the Feast of the Holy Family, into  the Holy Father’s own home life. We can hear the voice of Mrs Bergoglio to the little Jorge Maria:

‘Jorge, you are always coming home from school with tales about other boys and their families. Don’t gossip; it just isn’t nice.’

‘You’re not leaving this table until you finish your greens.’

‘You have to understand that your father and I are not made of money. Don’t expect too much of us this Christmas. Be grateful for what you get.’

‘The dearest hope of your father and me is that you meet a nice, modest Catholic girl, and that the pair of you make a go of it.’

‘And don’t go around moping. A boy like you should be full of the joys of spring.’

Thus has the homely wisdom of a simple Argentinian family come down to us as the precepts of the successor of St Peter.