admin“I would like all of us after these days of grace to have the courage to walk in the presence of the Lord,” Francis said in his first mass on Thursday, amid the splendours of the Sistine Chapel.
He warned the cardinals against “the worldliness of the Devil”.
“Walking, building and confessing are not so easy. Sometimes there are tremors,” the pope said, in a homily that will be scrutinised for clues to the style of his leadership.
The new head of the world’s 1,2 billion Catholics, who was formerly known as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, had begun his reign by meeting people in Rome and laying a bouquet of flowers in homage to the Virgin Mary in a basilica.
The pope also prayed at the altar of St Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order to which he belongs.
He returned to the priests’ quarters where he stayed before the conclave and settled his own bill. Yesterday he was scheduled to meet the cardinals at a formal audience in the Vatican. The election of the son of an Italian emigrant railway worker, who was considered a rank outsider, was met with widespread surprise and expressions of hope for change in a Church riven by scandal and internal conflict.
His elevation was also seen as recognition of the Church’s power in Latin America, which now accounts for 40 percent of the world’s Catholics, while it is in decline in Europe.
Projecting an image as a simple man of the people, the pope chose to name himself after St Francis of Assisi, the 13th century saint who shunned the riches of his family to devote himself to God and the poor.
The Vatican revealed that, for the ride back to the conclave lodgings after Wednesday’s election, Francis shunned the papal limousine with the “Vatican City State One” number plates and instead boarded a minibus with the cardinals.
It was in keeping with his image as a man who as archbishop of Buenos Aires chose to live in a modest apartment rather than the official residence and took buses to work.
Experts said they expected the new pope to shake up the Vatican, where poisonous rivalries within the Curia – its governing body – plagued the papacy of Francis’s predecessor Benedict XVI.
Benedict, 85, abruptly ended his eight-year papacy last month saying he lacked the strength to deal with the rigours of the job.
The Vatican confirmed that Francis had part of a lung removed as a boy, but its spokesman Federico Lombardi insisted: “This is not a handicap in his life.
“Those who know him have always seen him in good health.”
Francis and Benedict are to meet within days.
The new pope is also the first non-European pontiff in nearly 1,300 years and the first from the Society of Jesus order, or the Jesuits, known for their work in education and promotion of social justice.
World leaders greeted his election, while the Organisation for the Islamic Conference said Muslim nations hoped “the relationship between Islam and Christianity will regain its cordiality and sincere friendship” during his papacy. – AFP.
Online Reporter