Pope Francis speaks as he leads a Pentecost vigil mass in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican
Credit: Reuters

Pope Francis shared personal moments with 200,000 people on Saturday, telling them he sometimes nods off while praying at the end of a long day and that it “breaks my heart” that the death of a homeless person is not news.

Francis, who has made straight talk and simplicity a hallmark of his papacy, made his unscripted comments in answers to questions by four people at a huge international gathering of Catholic associations in St. Peter’s Square.

But he outdid himself in passionately discussing everything from the memory of his grandmother to his decision to become a priest, from political corruption to his worries about a Church that too often closes in on itself instead of looking outward.

“If we step outside of ourselves, we will find poverty,” he said, repeating his call for Catholics to do more to seek out those on the fringes of society who need help the most,” he said from the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica.

“Today, and it breaks my heart to say it, finding a homeless person who has died of cold, is not news. Today, the news is scandals, that is news, but the many children who don’t have food – that’s not news. This is grave. We can’t rest easy while things are this way.”

The crowd, most of whom are already involved in charity work, interrupted him often with applause.

“We cannot become starched Christians, too polite, who speak of theology calmly over tea. We have to become courageous Christians and seek out those (who need help most),” he said.

To laughter from the crowd, he described how he prays each day before an altar before going to bed.

“Sometimes I doze off, the fatigue of the day makes you fall asleep, but he (God) understands,” he said.

CRISIS OF VALUES

Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, said the world was going through not just an economic crisis but a crisis of values.

“This is happening today. If investments in banks fall, it is a tragedy and people say ‘what are we going to do?’ but if people die of hunger, have nothing to eat or suffer from poor health, that’s nothing. This is our crisis today. A Church that is poor and for the poor has to fight this mentality,” he said.

Many in the crowd planned to stay in the square overnight to pray and prepare for Francis’ Mass on Sunday, when the Catholic Church marks Pentecost, the day it teaches that the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles.

On Saturday morning, Francis met German Chancellor Angela Merkel and discussed Europe’s economic crisis.

Apparently responding to his criticism of a heartless “dictatorship of the economy” earlier in the week, Merkel, who is up for re-election in September, later called for stronger regulation of financial markets.

On Thursday, Francis appealed in a speech for world financial reform, saying the global economic crisis had made life worse for millions in rich and poor countries.

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Pope Francis, appearing before more than 250,000 people for his first Easter Sunday address, called for world peace, respect for the environment and a diplomatic solution to the crisis on the Korean peninsula.

In his “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message, he also appealed for a resumption of peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, an end to the civil war in Syria and political solutions to conflicts in several African countries.

The former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, who has made defense of nature an early hallmark of his pontificate, also condemned the “iniquitous exploitation of natural resources” and urged everyone to be “guardians” of creation.

Francis delivered his message from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica – the same spot from where he first appeared to the world as pope after his election on March 13 – to a crowd estimated by the Vatican at more than 250,000.

“Peace in Asia, above all on the Korean peninsula: may disagreements be overcome and a renewed spirit of reconciliation grow,” he said, speaking in Italian.

North Korea said on Saturday it was entering a “state of war” with South Korea. Tensions have been high since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered a third nuclear weapons test in February, breaching U.N. sanctions and ignoring warnings from North Korea’s sole major ally, China, not to do so.

People thronged the open jeep that carried Pope Francis around at the end of a Mass. He stopped to accept a jersey with his “Bergoglio” name on it from fans of an Argentine football club and to comfort a handicapped man.

Francis, who has brought a more simple and personal style to the papacy, said the message of Easter is that faith can help people transform their lives by letting “those desert places in our hearts bloom”.

GUARDIANS OF CREATION

“How many deserts, even today, do human beings need to cross?! Above all, the desert within, when we have no love for God or neighbor, when we fail to realize that we are guardians of all that the creator has given us and continues to give us,” he said.

Earlier, at a Mass in a square bedecked by more than 40,000 plants and flowers, he wore relatively simple white vestments, as opposed to his predecessor Benedict, who preferred elaborate robes.

The huge crowd spilled out of St. Peter’s Square and into surrounding streets. They included many who had come to see a pope counted on to rehabilitate a Church marred by scandals to do with sexual abuse of children and allegations of corruption.

“It’s a new pope and new beginning,” said Tina Hughes, 67, who came to Rome with her family from Nottingham, England to see the pope. “I think he brings something special. He connects with people. I feel good about him.”

Francis, who took his name in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, who is revered as a symbol of austerity and the importance of respecting nature, said the world was “divided by greed looking for easy gain”. He condemned human trafficking and violence linked to drug trafficking.

Easter Sunday, the day Christians believe Jesus was resurrected from the dead three days after his crucifixion, was the culmination of four hectic days of activity for the pope, during which he instituted several novelties.

On Holy Thursday, two women were included among the 12 people whose feet he washed and kissed during a traditional ceremony that had previously been open only to men.

Francis again showed on Sunday that he would carry out his papal duties his own way. The Vatican had prepared a list of brief Easter greetings for him in 65 languages – identical to those read by his predecessors – but he decided not read them, and spoke only in Italian.

Instead of moving into regal papal apartments, he is still living in the Vatican guesthouse where he stayed during the conclave that elected him as the first non-European pope in 1,300 years.

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Pope Francis, giving his clearest indication yet that he wants a more austere Catholic Church, said on Saturday that it should be poor and remember that its mission is to serve the poor.

Francis, speaking mostly off-the-cuff and smiling often, made his comments in an audience for journalists where he explained why he chose to take the name Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi, a symbol of peace, austerity and poverty.

He called Francis “the man who gives us this spirit of peace, the poor man”, and added: “Oh, how I would like a poor Church, and for the poor.”

Since his election on Wednesday as the first non-European pope in nearly 1,300 years, Francis has signaled a sharp change of style from his predecessor, Benedict, and has laid out a clear moral path for the 1.2-billion-member Church, which is beset by scandals, intrigue and strife.

He thanked the thousands of journalists who had covered his election but invited them to “always try to better understand the true nature of the Church, and even its journey in the world, with its virtues and with its sins”.

He urged journalists to seek “truth, goodness and beauty” in the world and in the Church.

Francis has set a forceful moral tone and given clear signs already that he will bring a new broom to the crisis-hit papacy, favoring humility and simplicity over pomp and grandeur.

He recalled how on Wednesday night, as he was receiving more and more votes in the conclave, the cardinal sitting next to him, Claudio Hummes of Brazil, comforted him “as the situation became dangerous”.

After the voting reached the two-thirds majority that elected him, applause broke out. Hummes, 78, then hugged and kissed him and told him “Don’t forget the poor”, the pope recounted, often gesturing with his hands.

“That word entered here,” he added, pointing to his head.

While the formal voting continued, the pope recalled: “I thought of wars …. and Francis (of Assisi) is the man of peace, and that is how the name entered my heart, Francis of Assisi, for me he is the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects others.”

It was the latest indication that the pope wanted the worldwide Church to take on an austere style.

On the night he was elected he shunned the papal limousine and travelled on a bus with other cardinals. He went to the Church-run hotel where he had been staying before the conclave and insisted on paying the bill.

Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, has also urged Argentines not to make costly trips to Rome to see him but to give the money to the poor instead.

RESPECT NATURE

St. Francis of Assisi, who died in 1226, renounced his family’s fortune for a life of charity and poverty and is also revered by environmentalists because he loved nature and preached to animals.

“Right now, we don’t have a very good relation with creation,” the pope said.

He said that Catholics should remember that Jesus, not the pope, was the centre of the Church. At the end of his address, switching from Italian into Spanish, he also made a gesture to non-believers and members of other religions.

“I told you I would willingly give you a blessing. Since many of you do not belong to the Catholic Church and others are non-believers, from the bottom of my heart I give this silent blessing to each and every one of you, respecting the conscience of each one of you but knowing that each one of you is a child of God. May God bless all of you,” he said.

CONTRAST WITH BENEDICT

The Vatican has strongly denied accusations by some critics in Argentina that Francis stayed silent during systematic human rights abuses by the former military dictatorship in his home country.

Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told reporters on Friday that the accusations “must be clearly and firmly denied”.

Critics of Bergoglio, the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, allege he failed to protect priests who challenged the dictatorship earlier in his career, during the 1976-1983 “dirty war”, and that he has said too little about the complicity of the Church during military rule.

The new pope’s outgoing nature and sense of humor differs notably from the much more formal Benedict, who last month became the first pope in 600 years to resign.

On Friday, Francis hugged cardinals, slapped them on the back, broke into animated laughter and blessed religious objects one cardinal pulled out of a plastic shopping bag.

The Vatican said Francis would visit Benedict on March 23 at the papal summer residence south of Rome where the former pontiff will live until he moves into a convent in the Vatican which is undergoing renovations.

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Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the first ever pope from the Americas, is a low-key intellectual who rides the bus and visits the poor. Bergoglio, who has chosen the papal name Francis, is the first ever pontiff to hail from the Americas and the first non-European in more than a 1,000 years.

Widely overlooked as a contender prior to this year’s conclave, the 76-year-old Jesuit and Archbishop of Buenos Aires, was reportedly a close second when Benedict XVI was elected in April 2005.

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  PHOTOS: Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina elected Pope

By nature a humble man but one caring of the destitute, Bergoglio has been a strong advocate of liberation theology, the new Christian movement that promotes church teachings to help the poor and oppressed – a policy very popular in Latin America but frowned upon by Vatican conservatives. In the 1980s, Pope Benedict XVI called it a “a singular heresy”.

Bergoglio was born in December 1936 in Buenos Aires, one of the five children of an Italian railway worker. He had a lung removed when he was a teenager due to an infection. He studied chemistry and then philosophy at university before teaching literature and psychology in Argentina. He joined the Jesuit order in 1958 before being ordained a priest in 1969.

From 1973 to 1979 he served as the Jesuit provincial in Argentina, then in 1980 became the rector of the seminary where he studied. He served there until 1986 after which he completed his doctorate in Germany and returned to Argentina. He was appointed Buenos Aires City Archbishop in February 1998. He was made cardinal by John Paul II in February 2001.

Bergoglio’s legacy as cardinal includes repairing the reputation of a church that failed to challenge Argentina’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship. Bergoglio created new parishes, restructured administrative offices and begun new pastoral projects, helping to recover the church’s traditional political influence in society. He has been critical of Argentina’s decision to legalize gay marriage in 2010 and President Cristina Kirchner’s efforts to free contraception and artificial insemination.

But his CV is not without controversy. In 2005, he was accused of conspiring with the 1970s military dictatorship to kidnap two Jesuits, but no evidence was found to verify the claim. But critics continue to say the cardinal, who was Jesuit provincial at the time, did little to support church workers against the military junta.

What’s in the Pope’s face?

The election victory of Jorge Mario Bergoglio took everyone by surprise, including psychology professor Peter M. Vishton, who created a system to determine the winner based on facial features.
The American professor canvassed hundreds of people for their views, and found that the Argentine “was an outlier as he scored below median on our measures of attractiveness, trustworthiness and healthiness”.
The system predicted Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley would be the next Pope, but Bergoglio scored highly on ‘likeliness of winning’. “He just looked the part”, said Vishton, who added that the newly crowned Pontiff’s expression showed warmth and humility in his opening speech.

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He took the name Pope Francis, the cardinal said.

Cardinals elected Bergoglio on just the second day of a secret conclave to find a successor to Pope Benedict, who abdicated unexpectedly last month.

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New Yorkers of all stripes lauded the choice of pope today.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., called the election “an incredible moment.”

“The Catholic Church plays an important role in the social and civic fabric of the Bronx and New York City, and today I congratulate the borough’s, and in fact the world’s, Catholic community on this history-making decision,” he said.

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  PHOTOS: Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina elected Pope

Rep. Nydia Velazquez said she appreciated that the pope was chosen from Latin America.

“It is a source of pride to see the first election of a pope from Latin America,” she said. “Equally important, Pope Francis has a distinguished record of working to comfort and assist the poor, while personally leading a humble life inspired by Christ.”

New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan released a statement saying he was praying for the new leader.

“The election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who has taken the name Francis I, marks a great milestone in our church,” he said in his statement. “As successor to Peter, our first pope, Pope Francis I stands as the figure of unity for all Catholics wherever they reside.”

His statement continued, “The bishops of the United States thank God for the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the inspired choice of the College of Cardinals. With joy in our hearts, we declare “Ad Multos Annos!” (For many years!)”

Metro also talked with worshippers at St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church at 22 Barclay Street in downtown Manhattan to get their reaction after the new Pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, of Argentina was elected today.

“It wasn’t Archbishop Dolan? I thought it would be him. Well, that’s great. That’s completely God’s plan because no one predicted it. The Holy Spirit planned it. I’d like the new pope to follow the principles in the biblical scriptures.”

Johnson John, 48, Bellrose, Queens

“For me, it would have been better if it were Cardinal Dolan. I don’t know anything about the new Argentinean pope.”

Maria Nela, 61, Flushing, Queens

“I hope he’s ecumenical like John and he reaches out to different faiths. I also hope he has a personality that’s warmer than Benedict.”

Steve Henry, 53, Newark, NJ

“The Catholic Church has been here longer than you and I have ever known so I don’t think it really matters that he’s from Argentina.”

Daniel Arens, 46, Long Island

“I didn’t even know that they had chosen the new pope. Hey, it’s someone from a different country than usual so that’s good. I hope that the church becomes more of a positive force and that they can eradicate the scandals that have been following him.”

Annie Bulgin, 28, Williamsbridge, Bronx

Evelyn Cheng contributed reporting.

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Pope Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, delivered his first blessing to a huge crowd in St Peter’s Square on Wednesday night, asking for the prayers of “all men and women of good will” to help him lead the Catholic Church.

Francis, speaking Italian with a slight Latin American accent, joked with the crowd before delivering his blessing, saying: “As you know the duty of the conclave is to give Rome a bishop. It seems that my brother cardinals went almost to the end of the world.” 

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  PHOTOS: Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina elected Pope

Cardinals elected Bergoglio on just the second day of a secret conclave to find a successor to Pope Benedict, who abdicated unexpectedly last month.

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