Hundreds of thousands of people including princes, presidents, rabbis and faithful have witnessed the official start of the ministry of Pope Francis after he delivered his inauguration mass in St Peter’s Square.
People crowded into the Vatican to hear a simplified mass in line with the former archbishop of Buenos Aires’s humble approach since replacing Benedict XVI earlier this month.
Before the Mass began, Francis received the fisherman’s ring symbolising the papacy and a wool stole symbolising his role as shepherd of his 1.2-billion strong flock.
He also received vows of obedience from a half-dozen cardinals – a potent symbol given that his predecessor is still alive.
AY_106277179.jpg AY_106277841.jpg AY_106256017.jpg AY_106255791.jpg AY_106257689.jpg AY_106255355.jpg AY_106255119.jpg AY_106252234.jpg AY_106252310.jpg AY_106253043.jpg AY_106253473.jpg AY_106253710.jpg AY_106253840.jpg AY_106253927.jpg AY_106254032.jpg AY_106256254.jpg AY_106256358.jpg AY_106255662.jpg AY_106255699.jpg AY_106255772.jpg AY_106254316.jpg AY_106254617.jpg AY_106254766.jpg AY_106256519.jpg AY_106255728.jpg AY_106256384.jpg AY_106256388.jpg AY_106257764.jpg AY_106257822.jpg AY_106257358.jpg AY_106251548.jpg AY_106254125.jpg AY_106251063.jpg AY_106252360.jpg AY_106252688.jpg AY_106251318.jpg AY_106250910.jpg AY_106248575.jpg AY_106250879.jpg AY_106250852.jpg AY_106250405.jpg AY_106250882.jpgA cardinal intoned the rite of inauguration, saying: ‘The Good Shepherd charged Peter to feed his lambs and his sheep; today you succeed him as the bishop of this church.’
Some 132 official delegations attended, including more than half a dozen heads of state from Latin America, a sign of the significance of the election for the region.
Francis, named after the 13th-century friar known for his care of the most disadvantaged, has made clear he wants his pontificate to be focused on the poor, a message which has resonance in a poverty-stricken region that is home to 40 per cent of the world’s Catholics.
He has also surprised – and perhaps frustrated – his security detail by his impromptu forays into the crowds.
For nearly half an hour before the Mass began, Francis toured the square in an open-top car, waving, shouting ‘Ciao!’ to well-wishers and occasionally kissing babies handed up to him as if he had been doing it for years.
At one point, as he neared a group of people in wheelchairs, he signalled for the vehicle to stop, got off and went to bless a man held up to the barricade by an aide.
A wax cast of the ring Francis received was first presented to Pope Paul VI, who presided over the second half of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings which revolutionised the church. Paul never wore it but the cast was subsequently made into the ring that Francis chose among several other more ornate ones.
Francis received each of the government delegations in St Peter’s Basilica after the Mass, and then hold an audience with the visiting Christian delegations tomorrow.
He will have a break on Thursday – a gracious nod perhaps to the fact that the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, is being installed that day in London.
Francis was interrupted by applause several times during his homily, including when he spoke of the need to protect the environment, serve one another with love and tenderness and not allow ‘omens of destruction,’ hatred, envy and pride to ‘defile our lives’.
‘Today amid so much darkness we need to see the light of hope and to be men and women who bring hope to others,’ he said.
‘To protect creation, to protect every man and every woman, to look upon them with tenderness and love, is to open up a horizon of hope, it is to let a shaft of light break through the heavy clouds,’ he said.
