Pope Francis was formally installed as Bishop of Rome yesterday in a ceremony characterised by more simplicity than the usual rituals and pomp enjoyed by papal predecessors taking up their pastoral duties.

He rolled into a side entrance of the basilica on an open-topped jeep

In yet another sign that Pope Francis sees his mission as pontiff as one of humble service, he his arrival at St John in Lateran Basilica to honour a past Pope who remains wildly popular in Rome.

Pope Francis arrived a half-hour early to bless a plaque renaming a corner of the piazza outside the church after Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005.

Pope Francis applauded, then gave his blessing after Rome’s mayor unveiled the simple white stone plaque marking Giovanni Paolo II Square in a section of the vast piazza, which often hosts free rock concerts and political and union rallies.

The Pope, who has stressed the importance of simplicity, arrived for the unveiling wearing a plain white cassock, a more modest wardrobe choice than that of the Italian cardinal who welcomed him wearing a red cape.

The early evening installation ceremony was a significant one for the Church, since a Pope is pontiff because he is the bishop of Rome, and not vice versa.

Right after his election on March 13 as the Church’s first Pope from Latin America, Pope Francis made clear he would relish his pastoral role as the city’s bishop.

Pope Francis’ insistence on his bishop’s role “speaks to his sensibility in truly being the pastor of a church through concrete ways,” Cardinal Agostino Vallini told Vatican Radio ahead of the installation ceremony.

The cardinal, who is the Pope’s vicar to the Rome diocese, is the prelate who greeted Pope Francis and who, along with the city hall, decided a part of St John in Lateran Square should be named after John Paul II.

The basilica is the city’s most ancient, with foundations dating back to the early 4th century. The installation ceremony held there is steeped in centuries of ritual that modern popes have updated to the times.

But while many ornately dressed pontiffs in centuries past arrived in a fancy horse-drawn carriage, Pope Francis rolled into a side entrance of the basilica complex in an open-topped white jeep. Before going indoors, the vehicle stopped again and again so his security team, walking briskly alongside, could pass babies to him so he could kiss them, to the delight of thousands of people gathered in the area. When wind started whipping up, Pope Francis took off his skull cap, letting the breeze tussle his hair.

Pope Francis later donned the tall, peaked bishop’s hat, and wearing simply adorned cream-coloured vestments, gently sat back in the mosaic-studded basilica chair, known as the Cathedra Romana, that symbolises the post of Rome bishop.

He was handed the pastoral staff, symbolising a bishop’s care for his flock. Barely a few minutes later, Pope Francis was up on his feet, shaking hands with priests, nuns, and then with the parents and children in a Rome family, chatting amiably with them.

“It is with joy that I am celebrating the Eucharist for the first time in this Lateran Basilica, the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome. I greet all of you with great affection,” Pope Francis said in his homily.

Pope Francis urged people to cultivate patience and love, saying that “those who love are able to understand, to hope, to inspire confidence; they do not give up, they do not burn bridges, they are able to forgive”.

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