Pope Francis caused controversy on his first official day in ministry as he met and shook hands with Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe during his inaugural Mass in the Vatican yesterday.

President Mugabe, who has been under a European Union travel ban since 2002 because of allegations of human rights abuses and vote rigging, was sitting in the VIP section during the installation ceremony in St. Peter’s Square, and later received a personal greeting from the new pontiff.

Vatican officials tried to play down the infringement of the travel ban on the 89-year-old leader today, claiming all Catholics were welcome to the inauguration and that no personal invitations had been issued prior to the ceremony.

Controversial start: Pope Francis meets and shakes hands with President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace in the Vatican on his first official day in ministry yesterday, flouting an EU-wide travel ban on the Zimbabwean leader

 

Conservative Catholic Mugabe is allowed in the Vatican City, located within the capital, as it is a separate state and therefore but subject to the EU ban.

When the Zimbabwean president arrived in Italy he was met by a priest at the Rome airport terminal who said: ‘On behalf of Pope Francis, welcome to the Vatican, welcome to the Holy See.’

Mugabe has visited Italy twice since the travel ban was enforced. In each case the conservative Catholic president was en-route to the Vatican, in 2005 for the funeral of Pope John Paul in 2005 and in April 2011 for ceremonies for his beatification.

Also in attendance yesterday was Britain’s minister for faith, Baroness Warsi who promised that the Argentine Pope will not be intervening in the dispute between his home country and the UK over the Falklands.

Days into his papacy, Pope Francis has already come under pressure to intercede in the dispute, with President Cristina Kirchner of Argentina flying into Rome to ask for his support on’ Las Malvinas’

As Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis has said that ‘the islands are ours’ and referred to the British as ‘usurpers’.

However, during her visit to the inaugural Mass, Baroness Warsi insisted that an intervention ‘is not going to happen.’

 

Asked what Britain’s view on papal interference would be, Baroness Warsi, said: ‘It’s not going to happen. ‘I’m confident that the policy of the Holy See is not going to change.

‘They’ve always held the view that the issue of the Falkland Islands is a matter for the UK and Argentina to deal with, that it’s a bilateral matter.

‘We‘ve always been very clear that the future of the Falkland Islands depends on the islanders and they made it very clear what their view is in the referendum last week. ‘

Muslim Baroness Warsi accompanied the British delegation, which also included Kenneth Clarke and the Duke of Gloucester, the Queen’s cousin and 21st in line to the throne, as well as his wife Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester.

David Cameron and the Queen did not attend, prompting speculation that Britain had snubbed the open air mass in Rome’s St Peter’s Square, but there was no shortage in VIPs and pilgrims, who had begun to gather in the square from dawn.

Despite arranging a simplified ceremony to suit the style of Pope Francis, it was enough to draw hundreds of thousands of people to St. Peter’s Square to witness the start of his papacy.

‘Amid so much darkness we need to see the light of hope,’ he urged worshippers as he delivered his optimistic tone and warned them to reject hatred and envy.

 

 

Beginning office as 266th pope: Before the Mass Pope Francis was presented with his papal pallium made of lambs’ wool – symbolising his role as shepherd of his flock

Tradition: Pope Francis receives the Fisherman’s Ring, made of gold-plated silver. The pope’s signet ring shows St. Peter as a fisherman and has the reigning pope’s name inscribed around the border. It has been used since the 13th century as a seal for private letters
Francis thrilled the crowd by touring the sun-drenched piazza and getting out of his jeep to bless a disabled man and kiss children, another gesture from a man whose short papacy is becoming defined by such spontaneous forays into the crowd and concern for the disadvantaged.

The blue and white flags from Francis’ native Argentina fluttered above the crowd – in Buenos Aires central Plaza de Mayo square, thousands of people cheered when they heard his words broadcast over loudspeaker.

‘I want to ask you to walk together, and take care of one another… and don’t forget that this bishop who is far away loves you very much. Pray for me,’ he said.

Civil protection crews closed the main streets leading to the square to traffic and set up barricades for nearly a mile along the route to try to control the masses and allow official delegations through.

 

Before the Mass began, Francis received the fisherman’s ring symbolising the papacy and a wool stole symbolizing 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 his predecessor Benedict XVI is still alive.

A 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.’

He is officially beginning his ministry as the 266th pope with a clear focus of his priorities.

The pope urged people to protect the environment, the weakest and the poorest, mapping out a clear focus of his priorities.

He promised that a little bit of tenderness can ‘open up a horizon of hope.’

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.’

 

 

 

 

 

Francis said the role of the pope is to open his arms and protect all of humanity, but ‘especially the poorest, the weakest, the least important, those whom Matthew lists in the final judgment on love: the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and those in prison.’

‘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.

 

Francis directed his homily to the many world leaders at the ceremony, saying: ‘I would like to ask all those who have positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life, and all men and women of goodwill.’

‘Let us be protectors of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment.

Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, took his name in honour of St. Francis of Assisi, a symbol of poverty, charity and love of nature.

Some 132 official delegations attended, including more than a half-dozen heads of state from Latin America, a sign of the significance of the election for the region.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

A Vatican spokesman had no comment on the request.

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 that has resonance in a poverty-stricken region that counts 40 percent of the world’s Catholics.

Among the religious VIPs attending was the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Bartholomew I, who became the first patriarch from the Istanbul-based church to attend a papal investiture since the two branches of Christianity split nearly 1,000 years ago.

In the VIP section were German chancellor Angela Merkel, US vice president Joe Biden, Argentine president Cristina Fernandez, Taiwanese president Ying-Jeou Ma, Prince Albert of Monaco and Bahraini prince Sheik Abdullah bin Haman bin Isa Alkhalifa, among others. Six sovereign rulers, 31 heads of state, three princes and 11 heads of government attended.

Also attending for the first time was the chief rabbi of Rome.

 

 

 

 

Their presence underscores the broad hopes for ecumenical and interfaith dialogue in this new papacy given Francis’ own work for improved relations and his namesake St. Francis of Assisi.

In a gesture to Christians in the East, the pope prayed with Eastern rite Catholic patriarchs and archbishops before the tomb of St. Peter at the start of the Mass and the Gospel was chanted in Greek rather than the traditional Latin.

But it is Francis’ history of living with the poor and working for them while archbishop of Buenos Aires that seems to have resonated with ordinary Catholics who say they are hopeful that Francis can inspire a new generation of faithful who have fallen away from the church.

‘I think he’ll revive the sentiments of Catholics who received the sacraments but don’t go to Mass anymore, and awaken the sentiments of people who don’t believe anymore in the church, for good reason,’ said Judith Teloni, an Argentine tourist guide who lives in Rome and attended the Mass with a friend.

‘As an Argentine, he was our cardinal. It’s a great joy for us,’ said Edoardo Fernandez Mendia, from the Argentine Pampas who was in the crowd. Recalling another great moment in Argentine history, when soccer great Diego Maradona scored an improbable goal in the 1986 World Cup, he said:

‘And for the second time, the Hand of God came to Argentina.’

 

 

 

 

 

Francis has made headlines with his simple style since the moment he appeared to the world on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, eschewing the ermine-lined red velvet cape his predecessor wore in favor of the simple papal white cassock, then paying his own bill at the hotel where he stayed prior to the conclave that elected him pope.

He has also surprised – and perhaps frustrated – his security detail by his impromptu forays into the crowds.

For nearly a half-hour before the Mass began, Francis toured the square in an open-air jeep, waving, shouting ‘Ciao!’ to well-wishers and occasionally kissing babies handed up to him as if he had been doing this for years.

At one point, as he neared a group of people in wheelchairs, he signaled for the jeep to stop, hopped off, and went to bless a man held up to the barricade by an aide.

 

 

 

Reverent: Prince Albert of Monaco and his wife Princess Charlene bow their heads in prayer

 

VIDEO See Pope Francis giving his inaugural mass at the Vatican
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/embed/video/1002880.html

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 that revolutionized 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 will receive each of the government delegations in St. Peter’s Basilica after the Mass, and then hold an audience with the visiting Christian delegations on Wednesday. He has a break from activity on Thursday; a gracious nod perhaps to the fact that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is being installed that day in London.

As a result, Welby won’t be representing the Anglican Communion at Tuesday’s installation Mass for Francis, sending instead a lower-level delegation. All told, six sovereign rulers, 31 heads of state, three princes and 11 heads of government are attending, the Vatican said.

For Jews, Orthodox and other religious leaders, the new pope’s choice of Francis as his name is also important for its reference to the Italian town of Assisi, where Pope John Paul II began conferences encouraging interfaith dialogue and closer bonds among Christians.

VIDEO Pope Francis officially takes charge of his 1.2 billion flock
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/embed/video/1002862.html

The Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, will join political and religious leaders from around the world to attend the official start of Pope Francis’s papacy in St Peter’s Square.

He told the BBC: ‘I’m excited about this morning and full of that sense of a new start.

‘Everybody has seen Pope Francis here and, as the people here in Rome say, he has ‘won their hearts’ with his simplicity, his directness and his ability to speak directly to the hearts of people to their anxieties and hopes.

‘He seems to me to appear like an experienced and loving parish priest.

‘He seems to have this ability to speak to hearts of people directly even though he’s addressing a quarter of a million people.

‘He’s a priest for the world and he’s speaking to everybody. Everybody has this sense of being included, those here who don’t go to church very often, those in London who I’ve spoken to who are not Catholics, who are not Christians, they have a sense of a rapport with him which is quickly established and hopefully will be fruitful.’

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 Pal Sunday, the first day of Holy Week leading to Easter.

VIDEO: Pope Francis surprises faithful at his old church with phone call
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/embed/video/1002893.html

VIDEO Pope Francis greets his faithful at St Peter’s Square
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/embed/video/1002821.html

Source: Daily Mail Online