130 national delegations witness Pope Francis inauguration

Some of the delegates to Pope Francis' inauguration

Pope Francis inaugurated his papacy with a mass in front of hundreds of thousands of people and foreign leaders in St. Peter’s Square on Tuesday.

With a simplified rite that fuelled hopes for change, Francis, the first Jesuit pope, has already put his

mark on the papacy, abandoning much of the baroque pomp of his predecessor Benedict XIV and signalling that he wants a Church whose first priority is the poor and disadvantaged.

He toured a crammed St. Peter’s Square under bright sunshine before the mass in an open white jeep, abandoning the bulletproof used frequently by his predecessor.

He stopped frequently to greet some of the hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the sprawling square, kissing babies and getting out at one point to bless a disabled person.

He wore plain white vestments and black shoes, in contrast to the red loafers that attracted attention under Benedict.

The ceremony conducted from an altar on the steps of the huge basilica was also been shortened to two hours after a three-hour service in 2005 when Benedict began his papacy.

Before the mass, Francis collected his newly minted gold ring and pallium, a liturgical woollen band worn around the neck that had been placed overnight on the tomb of St. Peter under the basilica’s altar.

He processed out of the church in a column of cardinals chanting a litany, calling for support for the new pontiff from saints, including several previous popes.

The mass formally installs Francis as the new leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.

Many in the crowd said they were optimistic of a more humble papacy under Francis, who as a Jesuit, has taken a vow of poverty.

“He is a simple, humble person, he is not like the untouchable popes. He seems like someone normal people can reach out to,’’ said Argentine electrician, Cirigliano Valetin, 51, who works in southern Italy.

“My first impression is that the pope is very humble, and has taken the church in his heart,’’ said Isaac Adroamabe from Arua in Uganda, who is studying to be a priest in Rome.

“I think he is going to fulfill his promises, he will lead the Church based on the example of St. Francis, you can already see he is a down-to-earth pope who mingles with the people,” he said.

Six sovereigns, United States Vice-President Joe Biden; Argentine President Cristina Fernandez; other leaders as well as heads of many other faiths were among the 130 delegations on the steps of the famous basilica.

Among them was Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew from Istanbul, the first time the spiritual head of Orthodox Christians has attended a Roman pope’s inaugural Mass since the Great Schism between western and eastern Christianity in 1054.

The former Buenos Aires Jorge Cardinal Bergoglio has aroused enormous enthusiasm and interest in the Catholic world due to the modest way he has assumed a post that was modelled after a Renaissance monarchy and carries titles such as “Vicar of Jesus Christ” and “Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church”.

In the six days since his election, he has referred to himself only as Bishop of Rome, the position from which his authority flows, and hinted he plans to reduce Vatican centralism and govern in consultation with other bishops.

On Wednesday, Francis will receive more than 30 delegations representing other Christian churches, as well as from the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain religions, a Vatican spokesman said.

He will address foreign ambassadors to the Vatican on Friday and have lunch with Benedict, their first meeting since the conclave, on Saturday before leading celebrations the next day for Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week leading to Easter.

Francis had his first taste of the diplomatic challenges of the papacy when on Monday, Fernandez asked him to support Buenos Aires in a dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.

He will also find himself greeting an international pariah, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who has been under a European Union travel ban since 2002 because of allegations of vote rigging and human rights abuses.

The Vatican is not part of the European Union, allowing Mugabe to travel there.

The Vatican on Monday revealed the new pope’s coat of arms, similar to the one he used as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, with symbols representing Jesus, Mary and Joseph.