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Pope Francis waves from the popemobile as he greets people in St. Peter's Square before celebrating his inaugural Mass at the Vatican March 19. (CNS/Paul Haring) By Cindy WoodenCatholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Although attempts were made to simplify the ceremony, Pope Francis officially inaugurated his ministry as pope and bishop of Rome in a liturgy filled with biblical symbolism and signs of the universality of his mission. But before the solemn rites began March 19, Pope Francis -- known for choosing public transport over chauffeur-driven limousines -- took his first spin in the popemobile, blessing the...

Washington (CNN) – American Catholics are very enthusiastic about the choice of Pope Francis to head the Roman Catholic Church, according to a new national survey. But a CNN/ORC International survey also indicates that you shouldn't expect them to pay any more attention to the new pope's teachings on issues like birth control than they paid to his predecessors."Pope Francis is starting off with a huge reservoir of goodwill in the U.S. Eighty-eight percent of American Catholics questioned in our survey approve of his selection as pope," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.By contrast, an ABC News/Washington Post poll in...

March 19, 2013, Tuesday — ProtectPope Francis at his inauguration Mass. Today a new pontificate officially began.The essential message in the homily given by Pope Francis to open his pontificate draws on the work and image of St. Joseph, spouse of Mary, head of the Holy Family. And that message is to “protect.”This message is important at a time when the figure of the person who “protects,” be he a father, a mother, a priest, a scholar, a leader, is under attack — in a time when the “protection” is entrusted to others, or to none, when the “protectors” are...

The reaction of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist to the white smoke is pure unbridled joy. It's your must watch video of the day. In the middle of recording their debut album for DeMontfort Music, the sisters heard the news that resounded in heaven and earth. VIDEO

"He hasn't actually done much in the way of real policy changes of initiatives, and he certainly is the hope and change pope, but he's at the head of a body, the Vatican, that's very resistant to change," said the CNN commentator. "I've read, for instance, that observers say that you don't change the Vatican, the Vatican changes you."

Flags, including those of his homeland of Argentina, are held up by pilgrims as Pope Francis make his way through the crowd in St. Peter's Square before celebrating his inaugural Mass at the Vatican March 19. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) Today, the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Pope Francis celebrated the Mass inaugurating his Petrine ministry, receiving the papal pallium and the Fisherman’s Ring. Below is the full text of the Holy Father’s homily, translated by Vatican Radio: Dear Brothers and Sisters, I thank the Lord that I can celebrate this Holy Mass for the inauguration of my Petrine ministry on...

One of the first official acts of the newly installed Pope Francis was to reach out to the Jewish community of Rome, as his predecessor Pope Benedict had done, and he is being greeted warmly by many Jewish leaders worldwide. For most of the last 1,500 years, though, Catholic-Jewish relations have not been so warm. In fact, there was a time when the Catholic Church was rocked with a scandal: It was alleged that the Pope himself was Jewish. But that was almost 1,000 years ago, and the first order of business is to note how well received Pope Francis...

Today Pope Francis’ official coat of arms and papal motto were unveiled at a Vatican press conference. The coat of arms is almost identical to the one he used as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, except the wide-brimmed cardinal’s hat at the top of the shield has been replaced by a miter, and the papal keys have been added. From the Vatican Information Service, here are details about the symbols found on Francis’ coat of arms: The shield has a bright blue background, at the centre top of which is a yellow radiant sun with the IHS christogram on...

Pope Francis greets the crowd before celebrating his inaugural Mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican March 19. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) Some of the less-experienced journalists covering the papal conclave were right on the money one week ago. As wrote in my report last Monday, many of these young vaticanisti covering their first conclave believed that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio had a strong chance of surging from behind to beat leading papabili such as Cardinals Scola and Ouellet.  They were convinced the Argentine would have his rivincita—his comeback—in the 2013 conclave. Their rookie rhyme was not without reason....

(Vatican Radio) Homily of the Holy Father at the Inauguration of his Papal Ministry 19 March 2013: Dear Brothers and Sisters, I thank the Lord that I can celebrate this Holy Mass for the inauguration of my Petrine ministry on the solemnity of Saint Joseph, the spouse of the Virgin Mary and the patron of the universal Church. It is a significant coincidence, and it is also the name-day of my venerable predecessor: we are close to him with our prayers, full of affection and gratitude. I offer a warm greeting to my brother cardinals and bishops, the priests, deacons,...

I read on an Italian blog (and so this is at the level of rumor for now) that the Roman ecclesiastical tailor shop Gammarelli sent a mozzetta over the the Apostolic Palace. A mozzetta is the elbow length red cape, often trimmed in ermine, worn by the Roman Pontiff over his white cassock. Tuesday, today, is the Mass of the “inauguration” of Francis’ pontificate. Tomorrow the Pope has an audience with delegations of Christian ‘churches’. Were the Pope to put on the mozzetta, that would be a good occasion. That would be the apt thing to do. It would be...

HURLINGHAM, Argentina — Father Julio Cesar Grassi was a celebrity in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires. The young, dynamic, media-savvy priest networked with wealthy Argentines to fund an array of schools, orphanages and job training programs for poor and abandoned youths, winning praise from Argentine politicians and his superior, Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Grassi called his foundation Felices los Niños, "Happy Children." Today, Grassi is a convicted sex offender who remains free on a conditional release after being sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2009 for molesting a prepubescent boy in his care. Yet in the years after Grassi's...

WASHINGTON (CAP) - American Catholics this week, while generally happy with the newly elected Pope Francis, expressed disappointment that the new head of the Catholic Church insisted on espousing such Catholic views. A new study out of the Pew Research Center said that while 74 percent of American Catholics approve of Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio's appointment as pontiff, almost 60 percent wished he held different views on abortion, premarital sex, contraception and same-sex marriage. "Most respondents questioned why the pope has to be so darn Catholic, to use a phrase that came up over and over again," said Pew spokesman...

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Francis urged princes, presidents, sheiks and thousands of ordinary people gathered for his installation Mass on Tuesday to protect the environment, the weakest and the poorest, mapping out a clear focus of his priorities as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics.

More Objective Reality Posted by Ann Barnhardt - March 17, AD 2013 1:02 PM MST From 2011, Pope Francis, then Cardinal Bergoglio, celebrating a "youth Mass" complete with puppets. This is just about as bad as it gets, folks. The consecrations are at the 5:30 and 6:15 marks. No genuflection. In fact not a single person there on the altar, such as it is, genuflects, much less kneels, except the young server in the front with the incense, who is on his knees. All of the rest of the concelebrating priests remain standing throughout, and of course, the two kid...

(Fox News excerpt of AP) VATICAN CITY – Thousands of people are pouring into St. Peter's Square to witness the official start of the papacy of the first pope from the New World. (snip) The installation Mass is simpler than the 2005 ceremony for Pope Benedict XVI in keeping with Francis' style, but still grand enough to draw 132 official delegations and religious leaders from around the world, including the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians who is attending for the first time since the two branches of Christianity split 1,000 years ago. (Bold print above not in the...

In a question that brought nervous laughter to other journalists, a question by Associated Press reporter Mathew Lee, asking whether the United States would monitor a Papal election, brought a serious formal non-answer, as reported by Family Security Matters via CNS News: State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said on Friday that if a request were to "come forward" that the papal election be monitored by an international organization called the Organization for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the U.S. government "would take it very seriously." Nuland made the remark only after she did some "digging" on the issue because...

BUENOS AIRES, March 18, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The head of a radical homosexual lobby in Argentina has said the election of Pope Francis is not a boon for advocates of same-sex “marriage.” The Argentine LGBT Federation (FALGBT) said the election of the former Cardinal of Buenos Ares, Jorge Bergoglio, as pope, “marks a clear desire of the Vatican to radicalize its position against the recognition of diverse family structures.”

Biden Jokes 'I'll Lose My Soul' If He Misses Cardinal Reception By Arlette Saenz Vice President Joe Biden joked today that his soul might be in jeopardy if he misses a scheduled reception with the U.S. Cardinals in Rome. "We invited the American cardinals to a reception," Biden told Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic during a bilateral meeting today, according to the print pool reports. "So unless I'm prepared to join the Eastern Orthodox Church, as a Roman Catholic, I'd better show up or I'll lose my soul." The vice president, who is the highest-ranking Roman Catholic politician in the United...

Robert Moyhnihan, editor of Inside the Vatican, remarks upon a very important bit of information about Pope Francis's youth: One of the central claims of the Catholic faith is not only that God exists, that He is real, but also that He can communicate with human beings, that human beings can be "pierced" by the actual sense of the divine presence, can experience and be aware of this real presence, can -- as the very first verse of the old Baltimore Catechism taught -- "know" God, then "love and serve Him."   Today in Rome, the Vatican released a statement...