VATICAN CITY
(AP) -- Pope Francis opened his first morning as pontiff by praying
Thursday at Rome's main basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary, a day
after cardinals elected him the first pope from the Americas in a bid to
revive a Catholic Church in crisis and give it a preacher with a humble
touch.
The former archbishop of Buenos Aires,
Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, entered the St. Mary Major basilica through a
side entrance just after 8 a.m. (0700 GMT) and left about 30 minutes
later. He had told a crowd of some 100,000 people packed in rain-soaked
St. Peter's Square just after his election that he intended to pray
Friday to the Madonna "that she may watch over all of Rome."
He
told cardinals he would also call on retired Pope Benedict XVI on
Thursday and celebrate an inaugural Mass in the Sistine Chapel, where
cardinals on Wednesday elected him leader of the 1.2 million-strong
church in an unusually quick conclave.
Francis,
the first Jesuit pope and first non-European since the Middle Ages,
decided to call himself Francis after St. Francis of Assisi, the humble
friar who dedicated his life to helping the poor.
The new pope immediately charmed the crowd in St. Peter's that roared when his name was announced.
Waving
shyly, he told said the cardinals' job was to find a bishop of Rome.
"It seems as if my brother cardinals went to find him from the end of
the earth, but here we are. Thank you for the welcome."
The
76-year-old Bergoglio, said to have finished second when Pope Benedict
XVI was elected in 2005, was chosen on just the fifth ballot to replace
the first pontiff to resign in 600 years. In the past century, only
Benedict, John Paul I in 1978 and Pius XII in 1939 were elected faster.
Francis
spoke by phone with Benedict, who has been living at the papal retreat
in Castel Gandolfo, and was to visit him on Friday, according to U.S.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan. The visit is significant because Benedict's
resignation has raised concerns about potential power conflicts emerging
from the peculiar situation of having a reigning pope and a retired
one.
Benedict's longtime aide, Monsignor Georg
Gaenswein, accompanied Francis to the vist at St. Mary Major, the ANSA
news agency reported. In addition to being Benedict's secretary,
Gaenswein is also the prefect of the papal household and will be
arranging the new pope's schedule.
Francis'
election elated Latin Americans, who number 40 percent of the world's
Catholics but have long been underrepresented in the church leadership.
On Wednesday, drivers honked their horns in the streets of Buenos Aires
and television announcers screamed with elation at the news.
"It's
a huge gift for all of Latin America. We waited 20 centuries. It was
worth the wait," said Jose Antonio Cruz, a Franciscan friar at the St.
Francis of Assisi church in the colonial Old San Juan district in Puerto
Rico. "Everyone from Canada down to Patagonia is going to feel
blessed."
The new pontiff brings a common
touch. The son of middle-class Italian immigrants, he denied himself the
luxuries that previous cardinals in Buenos Aires enjoyed. He lived in a
simple apartment, often rode the bus to work, cooked his own meals and
regularly visited slums that ring Argentina's capital.
He considers social outreach, rather than doctrinal battles, to be the essential business of the church.
"As
a champion of the poor and the most vulnerable among us, he carries
forth the message of love and compassion that has inspired the world for
more than 2,000 years - that in each other, we see the face of God,"
President Barack Obama said in a statement.
As
the 266th pope, Francis inherits a Catholic church in turmoil, beset by
the clerical sex abuse scandal, internal divisions and dwindling
numbers in parts of the world where Christianity had been strong for
centuries.
While Latin America still boasts
the largest bloc of Catholics on a single continent, it has faced
competition from aggressive evangelical churches that have chipped away
at strongholds like Brazil, where the number of Catholics has dropped
from 74 percent of the population in 2000 to 65 percent today.
Francis
is sure to bring the church closer to the poverty-wracked region, while
also introducing the world to a very different type of pope, whose
first words were a simple, "Brothers and sisters, good evening."
He asked for prayers for himself, and for Benedict, whose stunning resignation paved the way for his election.
"I
want you to bless me," Francis said in his first appearance from the
balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, asking the faithful to bow their heads
in silent prayer.
Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
