Francis' style
Drew 132 official delegations and religious leaders from around the world including Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe
Emergency crews set up barricades for nearly a mile along the boulevard leading to square to control the masses
Received fisherman's ring symbolising papacy and a wool stole symbolising role as shepherd of his flock
Also received vows of obedience from a half-dozen cardinals - symbolic given that his predecessor is still alive
Urged people to protect the environment, the weakest and the poorest, mapping out a clear focus of his priorities
Pope Francis officially began his ministry today in an installation Mass simplified to suit his style, but still grand 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.
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 and civil protection crews closed the main streets leading to the square to traffic and set up barricades for nearly a mile (two kilometres) along the route to try to control the masses and allow official delegations through.
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.
He will receive the visiting political leaders in the basilica after the Mass.
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.
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 is 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.
Also attending for the first time was the chief rabbi of Rome.
