San Francisco Frontiers - Italy sorts vast piles of post for popular Pope Leo

Missives from around the world, addressed to "His Holiness" in flowing cursive, in stark block capitals or in scrawls, are sorted into a series of yellow crates in a vast hangar near Rome's Fiumicino airport.

Robert Francis Prevost was a relatively unknown churchman when he was elected pontiff on May 8, but vast numbers of the faithful are penning him letters of support and pleas for him to pray on their behalf.

"We receive hundreds of letters a day addressed to the pope, with peaks of 100 kilos (220 pounds) per day, or an average of 500 to 550 kilos per week," Antonello Chidichimo, director of the sorting centre, told AFP.

"There are many letters written by children, postcards, and it's wonderful to see that in the digital age, many people still use a pen to write to the pope," he noted.

Bearing colourful stamps, the day's letters -- one of which is decorated with hand-drawn red hearts -- arrive from as far afield as Andorra, Brazil, Cameroon, Hong Kong or the US.

After being sorted by machine -- or by hand if a hand-written address is indecipherable -- the mail is collected by a van that delivers it the same day to the Vatican, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) away.

- Teddy bear -

Pilgrims and tourists visiting the Vatican can also write to the pope and drop their letters directly -- no stamp needed -- at the Vatican Post Office, where it is collected four times a day.

"Many of those who drop off these letters come from South America or Asia," Nicola Vaccaro, an employee at the central office in St Peter's Square, told AFP.

"They mainly write to ask for intercession (prayers) for a sick person or a loved one," he said.

Among the letters and packages, Vaccaro has even seen someone post the pope a teddy bear.

Behind the walls of the world's smallest state, the mail is centralised and sorted by the Secretariat of State, which performs standard security checks before delivering it to the pope's inner circle.

Senders who provide their address can expect a response -- from the Vatican or on rare occasions the pontiff himself.

Leo's predecessor Pope Francis, who received a bumper postbag as he battled ill health before his death earlier this year, had been known to answer some letters in person.

His handwritten notes were scanned by his private secretary who then sent them -- by email.

Q.Nelson--SFF