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VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis thrilled tens of thousands of people on Tuesday gathered for his installation Mass, taking a long round-about through St. Peter's Square and getting out of his jeep to bless a disabled man in a wheelchair in the crowd.

The blue and white flags from Francis' native Argentina fluttered above the crowd that Italian media estimate could reach 1 million. Civil protection crews closed the main streets leading to the square to traffic and set up barricades for nearly a mile (two kilometers) along the route to try to control the masses.

For nearly a half-hour, Francis toured the square in an open-air jeep, waving 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.

The installation Mass is a simpler affair than the 2005 ceremony that launched Pope Benedict XVI's papacy, in keeping with Francis' sober style, but it is still grand enough to draw 132 official delegations and religious leaders from around the world.

Among the VIPs is the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, Bartholomew I, who will become 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. His presence underscores the broad hopes for ecumenical and interfaith dialogue in this new papacy.

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.

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.

During Tuesday's Mass, Francis will receive the woolen pallium, or stole symbolizing his role as shepherd of his flock, and also the simple gold-plated silver fisherman's ring that is a symbol of the papacy.

A wax cast of the ring 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 will be attending, the Vatican said.

More than a half-dozen Latin American presidents are attending, a sign of the significance of the election for the region. 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.

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.

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.

VATICAN CITY — ABC News Argentine Jorge Bergoglio has been elected pope, the first ever from the Americas and the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium. He chose the name Pope Francis.

Cardinals elected a new pope to lead the world's 1.2 billion Catholics on Wednesday, overcoming deep divisions to select the 266th pontiff in a remarkably fast conclave.

ABC News - White smoke rose from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel today and the bells of St. Peter's Basilica are ringing, signifying that a new pope has been elected to head the world's Catholic Church.

A roar of cheers arose from the thousands of people awaiting the signal outside the Vatican.

The 115 cardinal electors began the conclave on Tuesday following the resignation of Benedict XVI, the first pontiff to resign in 600 years. At least a two-thirds majority -- 77 votes -- was required to elect the next pope.

French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the senior cardinal in the order of the deacons, is expected to step onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica shortly to announce, "Habemus Papam," Latin for "We have a pope."

Tauran will then reveal the pontiff's birth name and the name he has chosen for himself as pope.

The new pope is then expected to step onto the balcony to greet the crowd gathered below in St. Peter's Square.

VATICAN CITY - New York Daily News — Black smoke over the Vatican — we do not have a new Pope.

The 115 cardinals who have locked themselves inside the Sistine Chapel revealed to the world that they have failed to select a new pontiff on their first ballot — a widely expected outcome as the papal conclave got underway Tuesday afternoon.

The cardinals will return for two votes Wednesday morning and, if no white smoke billows over the Vatican, two more votes in the afternoon.

The process will continue until one of the cardinals emerges with a two-thirds majority — 77 votes.

The last nine conclaves have lasted an average of three days.

The puff of black smoke came about three hours after the cardinals locked themselves into the Sistine Chapel to be alone with their thoughts and their prayers as began the selection process for a new Pope.

(ABC NEWS) Before the 115 cardinal electors file into the Sistine Chapel for the conclave to choose the next pope, technicians will pull up the floorboards to install cell phone jamming devices.

Once there, the doors will be locked and the participants will have no newspapers, television or, for the social media savvy set, Twitter. They'll get virtually nothing from the outside, other than food.

"It is the way of ensuring that the voice speaking to the cardinals during the conclave belongs to the Holy Spirit and no one else," said ABC News Vatican consultant Father John Wauck.

The ritualistic conclave involves centuries-old customs that have changed very little over time.

The tradition of locking the doors dates back to 1274, when the cardinals met in the remote village of Viterbo.

Two years and eight months into the longest conclave ever, frustrated townspeople tried everything to motivate a quicker decision. They locked the cardinals inside and resorted to more extreme measures, trying to starve them out and tearing the roof off the building to expose them to the elements.

2013 Conclave

The cardinal electors in the upcoming conclave will be much more comfortable, surrounded by Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.

A date for the secret event, which literally means "with key," won't be set until the cardinals convene on March 4, a Vatican spokesman said.

Pope Benedict decreed a conclave could be held as soon as all voting cardinals are present. All cardinals under 80 when the papacy is vacated are eligible to participate.

While campaigning is forbidden inside the Sistine Chapel, experts say there is plenty of politicking in the days before.

"This is schmoozing at the highest level," said Christopher Bellitto, a professor at Kean University in New Jersey who has written nine books on the history of the church.

More than half of the cardinal electors were appointed by Benedict, and many are using the days before the conclave to get to know each other and feel out the general sentiment, Bellitto said.

"I think each cardinal has a list of a dozen people in his head. He may know some very well, some by reputation," Bellitto said. "If the cardinals don't know someone, they may ask someone they trust [their opinion]."

On the day the conclave begins, the cardinal electors will attend mass before filing into the Sistine Chapel. For one of the 115, it will likely be his last time wearing a red hat. The cardinal electors have a history of elevating one of their own to the papacy, so that lucky choice will exchange it for the pope's traditional white.

Once inside the Sistine Chapel, the cardinals will take an oath of secrecy and then be given rectangular ballots with the words "Eligo in Summum Pontificem" written on them, meaning, "I elect as supreme pontiff."

Each voting cardinal writes the name of his choice for pope on the ballot and is asked to disguise his handwriting to avoid letting others know who is supporting whom.

Three scrutineers count the ballots, and if no one receives the required two-thirds majority, the votes are burned. A black smoke signal will signal to the world the vote was inconclusive.

Damp straw was once used to turn the smoke black, Bellitto said, however after years of confusion, dye has reportedly been used.

There can be a maximum of four ballots in a single day, and if after three days the cardinals still haven't selected a pope, the voting sessions can be suspended for a day of prayer and discussion.

Throughout the secret process, the cardinals will eat and sleep in a private guest house on the edge of Vatican City.

Only a select staff of doctors, cooks and housekeepers, all sworn to secrecy, are allowed to interact with the cardinals.

For approximately half of the cardinal electors, this will be their second time participating in the mystical event.

Cardinal William Levada of San Francisco, a first-timer, said his colleagues in the college of cardinals have given him an idea of what to expect.

"I think it is a prayerful atmosphere," he said. "No campaigning. It is forbidden to campaign there. You can't put yourself forward."

Habemus Papem: We Have A Pope!

The first sign that the 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide have a pope will come when white smoke curls out of the Sistine Chapel's chimney.

Inside the chapel, the man who is chosen to be pope will be asked by the cardinal dean if he accepts. If so, he will be asked for his papal name.

"Generally, the way it works is there is some level of affection toward a certain name," Bellitto said.

At his first general audience as pope, Benedict XVI said he chose the name to "create a spirutual bond with Benedict XV, who steered the church through the period of turmoil caused by the First World War," and also cited his fondness for the Benedictine Order as an influence.

The newly elected pontiff wiill be fitted with the papal vestments before making his way to St. Peter's Basilica, his identity still unknown to the world.

French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the senior cardinal in the order of the deacons, will step onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica to tell the world the name of the man chosen as the next pontiff.

Tauran is expected to make the announcement unless he is chosen pope, in which case another cardinal would deliver the news.

The new pope will then step onto the balcony and greet the world for the first time.

However, the secrets of the conclave that elevated him to the position will be forever be kept among one of the world's most exclusive clubs.

By DAVID WRIGHT (@abcdavid) and ALYSSA NEWCOMB (@alyssanewcomb) March 11, 2013

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Cardinals have set Tuesday as the start date for the conclave to elect the next pope.

The Vatican press office said the decision was taken during a vote today of the College of Cardinals. Tuesday will begin with a Mass in the morning, followed by the first balloting in the afternoon.

VIENNA (AP) -- Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn is a soft-spoken conservative who is ready to listen to those espousing reform. That profile that could appeal to fellow cardinals looking to elect a pontiff with widest-possible appeal to the world's 1 billion Catholics. His nationality may be his biggest disadvantage: Electors may be reluctant to choose another German speaker as a successor to Benedict XVI. A man of low tolerance for the child abuse scandals roiling the church, Schoenborn himself was elevated to the its upper echelons of the Catholic hierarchy after his predecessor resigned 18 years ago over accusations that he was a pedophile. --- EDITOR'S NOTE: As the Roman Catholic Church prepares to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, The Associated Press is profiling key cardinals seen as "papabili" - contenders to the throne. In the secretive world of the Vatican, there is no way to know who is in the running, and history has yielded plenty of surprises. But these are the names that have come up time and again in speculation. Today: Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn. --- Multilingual and respected by Jews, Muslims and Orthodox Christians, Benedict XVI's friend and former pupil was one of the cardinal electors in the 2005 papal conclave that chose the German as head of the Catholic church. A scholar who is at home in the pulpit, Schoenborn also is well connected in the Vatican - and appears willing to make it his home, if reluctantly. Asked if he would like to succeed Benedict on news of the pontiff's plan to step down, he said: "my heart is in Vienna, my heart is in Austria - but naturally with the whole Church as well." Such reticence is not unusual for a prince of the church known for a quiet management style focused on steering the Austrian church around controversy. That has not always been possible. The austere Schoenborn owed his own elevation to the scandal involving his predecessor, Hans Groer, who was accused of abusing young boys. Appointed Vienna's archbishop in 1995, Schoenborn initially stayed silent. But he showed courage three years later, personally apologizing "for everything that my predecessors and other holders of church office committed against people in their trust." In a measure of his dislike of confrontation, he fired his reform-minded vicar, Helmut Schueller, in 1998 by shoving a dismissal letter under Schueller's door. Yet, while grappling with the pornography scandal roiling the church in 2005, he took on the Vatican. "It's sad that it took so long to act," he said of Rome's reluctance to investigate the wrongdoing, saying later of the scandal: "The church is greater than its human weaknesses." He went further than that as cases of sexual abuse continued rocking the church, calling for a re-examination of priestly celibacy in 2010 - only to roll back in typical style shortly after, by having his spokesman issue a denial that he was questioning the rule on priests not marrying. While accepting the possibility of evolution, Schoenborn criticized certain "neo-Darwinian" theories as incompatible with Catholic teaching, writing in a 2005 New York Times editorial, that "any system of thought that denies or seeks to explain away the overwhelming evidence for design in biology is ideology, not science." Ideologically, his tenure has been marked by a turn away from inner-church reform. Instead he has focused toward respect for Catholic dogma - while understanding those who fall by the wayside. "It is not easy for the church to find the right path between the ... protection of marriage and family on the one hand and ... compassion with human failings," he said in 2004, alluding to church opposition to - but his personal understanding of - divorce. His audience, at a funeral Mass for Austrian President Thomas Klestil, included both his widow and his divorced wife. Later, however, he made clear that he backed the sanctity of marriage, telling an Austrian weekly shortly after Benedict's resignation that its indissolubility "can be traced back to the instructions of Jesus" and thus could not be changed. He spoke out about bending church dogma in response to pressure in the same interview, saying: "If Christ communicated a teaching that we believe is true and brings salvation to humanity, then nobody gains if that teaching is falsified, even if he were to gain in popularity by doing so." Born Jan. 22, 1945, into an aristocratic Bohemian family, Schoenborn's destiny appeared to have been influenced by his heritage - 19 of his ancestors were priests, bishops or archbishops. After joining the Dominican order in 1963, he was ordained to the priesthood in 1970 by Cardinal Franz Koenig. Like most Austrians, Schoenborn idolized Koenig for his social engagement and courage to speak out on controversial issues - but was initially eclipsed by Koenig's overwhelming personality. In the late 1960s, when Koenig played tennis in Schoenborn's hometown of Schrunns, Schoenborn "always fought to be Koenig's ball-boy," said Schoenborn confidant Heinz Nussbaumer in a telling reflection of the later relationship between the two churchmen. Because of Koenig's strong persona, Schoenborn "had a difficult start," said Nussbaumer, publisher of a Catholic weekly. "But later he was able to develop his own personality." His reputation as a scholar - and bridge-builder to Orthodox Christians - began with a dissertation on icons even before he became a theology professor at the Catholic University of Fribourg, Switzerland in 1975. Fluent in French and Italian, proficient in English and Spanish, he is well-connected in the Vatican, as reflected by his role as a cardinal elector for Benedict. He built on his image as an ecumenist with visits to the patriarchs of Russia and Romania and met with Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 11 years ago, on the first trip of a Catholic church leader to the Islamic republic since the 1979 revolution. Normally above the fray of international politics, he spoke out sharply in 2002 about President George W. Bush's inclusion of Iran with prewar Iraq and North Korea as part of the "the axis of evil." "In the best case it's naive," he said, contending such comments could "alienate Iran's moderate factions."

Pope Benedict XVI is making history today, becoming the first pontiff to retire in nearly 600 years.

Only a handful of popes have ever done so.

The last was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415 in a deal to end the Great Western Schism, a dispute among competing papal claimants. The most famous resignation was Pope Celestine V in 1294; Dante placed him in hell for it.

Benedict is saying farewell this morning to his closest advisers in Clementine Hall at the Apostolic Palace. Then shortly before 5 p.m., he will leave the palace for the last time as pope and fly by helicopter to the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome.

Benedict Greets Cardinals on Last Day As Pope



Exactly at 8 p.m. — when his resignation takes effect — the doors at Castel Gandolfo will close and the papacy that began on April 19, 2005, will come to an end.

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI basked in an emotional send-off Wednesday from an estimated 150,000 people at his final general audience in St. Peter's Square, recalling moments of "joy and light" during his papacy and also times of difficulty when "it seemed like the Lord was sleeping." The crowd, many toting banners saying "Grazie!" ("Thank you!"), jammed the piazza to bid Benedict farewell and hear his final speech as pontiff. In this appointment, which he has kept each week for eight years to teach the world about the Catholic faith, Benedict thanked his flock for respecting his retirement, which takes effect Thursday. Benedict clearly enjoyed the occasion, taking a long victory lap around the square in an open-sided car and stopping to kiss and bless half a dozen children handed to him by his secretary. Seventy cardinals, some tearful, sat in solemn attendance - then gave him a standing ovation at the end of his speech. Benedict made a quick exit, foregoing the typical meet-and-greet session that follows the audience as if to not prolong the goodbye. Given the historic moment, Benedict also changed course and didn't produce his typical professorial Wednesday catechism lesson. Rather, he made his final public appearance in St. Peter's a personal one, explaining once again why he was becoming the first pope in 600 years to resign and urging the faithful to pray for his successor. "To love the church means also to have the courage to take difficult, painful decisions, always keeping the good of the church in mind, not oneself," Benedict said to thundering applause. He noted that a pope has no privacy: "He belongs always and forever to everyone, to the whole church." But he promised that in retirement he would not be returning to private life - instead taking on a new experience of service to the church through prayer. He recalled that when he was elected pope on April 19, 2005, he questioned if God truly wanted it. "'It's a great burden that you've placed on my shoulders,'" he recalled telling God. During his eight years as pope, Benedict said he had had "moments of joy and light, but also moments that haven't been easy ... moments of turbulent seas and rough winds, as has occurred in the history of the church when it seemed like the Lord was sleeping." But he said he never felt alone, that God always guided him, and he thanked his cardinals and colleagues for their support and for "understanding and respecting this important decision." The pope's eight-year tenure has been beset by the clerical sex abuse scandal, discord over everything from priestly celibacy to women's ordination, and most recently the betrayal by his own butler who stole his private papers and leaked them to a journalist. Under a bright sun and blue skies, the square was overflowing with pilgrims and curiosity-seekers. Those who couldn't get in picked spots along the main boulevard leading to the square to watch the event on giant TV screens. About 50,000 tickets were requested for Benedict's final master class. In the end, the Vatican estimated that 150,000 people flocked to the farewell. "It's difficult - the emotion is so big," said Jan Marie, a 53-year-old Roman in his first years as a seminarian. "We came to support the pope's decision." With chants of "Benedetto!" erupting often, the mood was far more buoyant than during the pope's final Sunday blessing. It recalled the jubilant turnouts that often accompanied him at World Youth Days and events involving his predecessor, Pope John Paul II. Benedict has said he decided to retire after realizing that, at 85, he simply didn't have the "strength of mind or body" to carry on. "I have taken this step with the full understanding of the seriousness and also novelty of the decision, but with a profound serenity in my soul," Benedict told the crowd. Benedict will meet Thursday morning with cardinals for a final time, then fly by helicopter to the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo south of Rome. There, at 8 p.m., the doors of the palazzo will close and the Swiss Guards in attendance will go off duty, their service protecting the head of the Catholic Church over - for now. Many of the cardinals who will choose Benedict's successor were in St. Peter's Square for his final audience. Those included retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, the object of a grass-roots campaign in the U.S. to persuade him to recuse himself for having covered up for sexually abusive priests. Mahony has said he will be among the 115 cardinals voting on who the next pope should be. "God bless you," Mahony said when asked by television crews about the campaign. Also in attendance Wednesday were cardinals over 80, who can't participate in the conclave but will participate in meetings next week to discuss the problems facing the church and the qualities needed in a new pope. "I am joining the entire church in praying that the cardinal electors will have the help of the Holy Spirit," Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, 82, said. Herranz has been authorized by the pope to brief voting-age cardinals on his investigation into the leaks of papal documents that exposed corruption in the Vatican administration. Vatican officials say cardinals will begin meeting Monday to decide when to set the date for the conclave. But the rank-and-file faithful in the crowd weren't so concerned with the future; they wanted to savor the final moments with the pope they have known for years. "I came to thank him for the testimony that he has given the church," said Maria Cristina Chiarini, a 52-year-old homemaker who traveled by train from Lugo in central Italy with about 60 members of her parish. "There's nostalgia, human nostalgia, but also comfort, because as a Christian we have hope. The Lord won't leave us without a guide."