Catholics have a new pope, the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church

Heartiest congratulations from Bali the island of love, Indonesia to the Newly Elected Pope  

 March 19, 2013. (Romereports.com) Pope Francis greeted 132 official delegations that came to Rome, to congratulate him and welcome  his Pontificate. He greeted them one by one in St. Peter's Basilica.
 
The delegations that were highlighted the most were the ones from Argentina and Italy. The Vatican was quite busy. Among the heads of state and dignitaries there were six current Monarchs, 32 Heads of State, three heirs to the throne and 11 government leaders.

Ten Heads of States from Latin America attended. Among them was Chilean President Sebastian Piñera, who along with his wife asked the Pope to bless a few religious items. The president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa brought his mother to the Mass.

Brazilian President Vilma Roussef was also there, as well as Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto, whose wife gave the Pope a Papal hat.

Vice- President Joseph Biden led the delegation of the United States. The Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel was also in attendance, as well as Spain's prince and princess, headed by the government's president, Mariano Rajoy.

Countries where Christians are a minority, were also represented, like Bahrain, Morocco, Israel and Turkey.

The Pope greeted each of the delegations and payed special attention to countries where wars or violent conflicts are an every day reality.

Before leaving the Basilica, he took the time to greet and thank the personnel team who made sure everything was ready for him and his guests, inside the Basilica.



Let's welcome our New World Pope with joy
 Pope Francis  I
 Argentina's Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (76) 


                     March 13th. 2013 has marked a new history in papacy 

Habemus papam!” members of the crowd shouted in Latin, waving
umbrellas and flags. “We have a pope!” Others cried “Viva il Papa!” as
all eyes trained on the balcony.

“It was like waiting for the birth of a baby, only better, " said a
Roman man. A child sitting atop his father’s shoulders waved a
crucifix.

VATICAN CITY — With a puff of white smoke from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel and to the cheers of thousands of rain-soaked faithful, a gathering of Catholic cardinals picked a new pope from among their
midst on Wednesday. The name of the new pope, the 266th pontiff of the
Roman Catholic Church, by tradition would not be revealed until a
celebratory announcement on a white balcony on the front of St.
Peter’s Basilica.

Argentine Is 266th Pope

New World Pope 

Pope Francis I

Argentina's Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (76)  greets crowds in Rome after his election as the Catholic Church's new Pope, the first Latin American Pope 

Francis (/ˈfrænsɨs/, /ˈfrɑːnsɪs/; Latin: Franciscus [franˈtʃiskus]; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio 17 December 1936) is the 266th pope of the Catholic Church, elected by the Papal conclave on 13 March 2013.

A native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, he was ordained as a priest in 1969. In 1998 he became the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, and in 2001 a cardinal. He was elected pope following the resignation of his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013. Bergoglio chose the name Francis (the first time a pope has taken that name) in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi. He is both the first Jesuit pope and the first pope from the Americas. He is also the first pope from outside Europe since Gregory III in the 8th century.

  Motto Miserando atque eligendo
("With mercy and choosing"

 Bergoglio was elected pope on 13 March 2013, the second day of the 2013 papal conclave, taking the papal name Francis. Vatican deputy spokesman Thomas Rosica said the same day that the new pontiff had chosen the name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi, and had done so because the new pontiff was a lover of the poor. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, a participant in the proceedings of the Conclave, confirmed that the new Pope said, "I choose the name Francis, in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi". Some of those not initially aware of the statement made by the new Pope in the Conclave mistakenly believed that, as a Jesuit, he chose Francis in recognition of Francis Xavier.

 Conclave 2013: Speech by New Pope, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio

     
  
 The New World Pope’s First Words As Leader Of The Catholic Church
Pope Francis I’s first words as pope were “Buona sera”, which means “good evening” in Italian, followed by a speech:

“First of all would like to say a prayer for our Bishop Benedict the 16th. Let’s all pray  together so the Lord bless him.”
“And now let’s begin this path together. The bishop with the people. The path in brotherhood, love, and trust. Let’s pray for the world so that there is a brotherhood. I wish the path that we begin together and the cardinal will help me with…And now I’d like to bless you. But first of all I ask for a favor. Before the Bishop does the prayer let’s pray for the Bishop.”
“The holy father through the radio, TV, and the new communication technologies. Let’s pray God  so he will preserve a long time the Pope so he gives peace ot the church and the whole world. And now I’ll give you the Benediction to you and the entire world. To all the men and women of good will. May the holy apostles Peter and Paul in whose power and authority we have confidence intercede in our behalf to the Lord. Through the prayers and Mary, the blessed virgin, the blessed John the Baptist. May the mighty God have mercy on you. May Jesus Christ lead you to everlasting life. It’s time for a truthful and fruitful penance. And may the blessing of the mighty God,  The father, the son, the whole spirit descend on you and remain on you always.”
“Brothers and sister I live. Thank you so much for your welcoming. Pray for me and I will see you soon. Tomorrow I am going to pray to The Virgin Mary so that she keeps Rome. Have a good evening and rest well.”

 VATICAN CITY - On his first day as shepherd of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, Pope Francis picked up his luggage at a Vatican hotel, personally thanked each member of the staff and even paid his own bill. Then, at his first Mass, he delivered a short, unscripted homily - in Italian, not the Latin of his predecessor - holding the cardinals who elected him responsible for keeping the church strong.

Pope for barely 12 hours, Francis brushed off years of tradition and formality Thursday with a remarkable break in style that sent a clear message that his papacy is poised to reject many of the trappings enjoyed by now-retired Benedict XVI.

That was hardly out of character for Francis. For years, as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Argentine pastor took the bus to work, kissed the feet of AIDS patients and prayed with former prostitutes, eschewing the luxurious residence that would have been his due as archbishop of Buenos Aires.

But now he is pope - the first from the New World and the first Jesuit - and his style both personal and liturgical is in a global spotlight.

On his first day, he couldn't have signaled a greater contrast to Benedict, the German academic who was meek and generous in person but formal and traditional in public.

The differences played out Thursday in the Sistine Chapel as the 76-year-old Francis celebrated his first public Mass as pope.

Whereas Benedict read a three-page discourse in Latin, Francis had a far simpler message. Speaking off-the-cuff for 10 minutes in easy Italian, he said all Catholics must "build" the church and "walk" with the faith.

He urged priests to build their churches on solid foundations, warning: "What happens when children build sand castles on the beach? It all comes down."

"If we don't proclaim Jesus, we become a pitiful NGO, not the bride of the Lord," he said.

When we walk without the cross, and when we preach about Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are mundane. We are bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, but we are not disciples of the Lord."

The new style was evident even in Francis' wardrobe. Rather than wear the new golden pectoral cross he was offered after his election Wednesday, he kept the simple crucifix of his days as bishop. He also turned down the red velvet cape that Benedict wore when he was presented to the world for the first time in 2005, choosing the simple white cassock of the papacy instead.

"It seems to me what is certain is it's a great change of style, which for us isn't a small thing," Sergio Rubin, Francis' authorized biographer, told The Associated Press.

Rubin said the new pope "believes the church has to go into the streets" and be one with the people it serves and not impose its message on a society that often doesn't want to hear it.

For this reason, as Cardinal Bergoglio, "he built altars and tents in the squares of Buenos Aires, and held Masses with former prostitutes and homeless people in the street," Rubin said. "He did this to express the closeness of the church to those who are suffering."

Rubin said he expected to see more changes - even substantive ones - once Francis gets his footing.

"I think the categories of progressive and conservative are insufficient," Rubin said. "Pope Francis is someone with a great mental openness to enter into dialogue. He is very understanding of different situations. He doesn't like to impose."

Francis began Thursday with an early morning trip in a simple Vatican car - not the papal sedan - to a Roman basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary, where he prayed before an icon of the Madonna

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

 
March 17,2013 
the first Angelus prayer by the  New World Pope , Pope Francis I
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis appeared before some 150,000 pilgrims massed in St Peter's Square on Sunday for his first Angelus prayer and asked the faithful to pray for him.

Simultaneous interpretation

Angelus prayer on March 17, 2013,

Pope Francis the first delivered off the cuff remarks 
Forgiveness & Mercy

At St Peter Square, Vatican City

Dear brothers and sisters,

Good morning

After the first meeting on last Wednesday, now I can greet you once more.

To everyone gather here ,

I am happy to do this on Sunday, on the Lord’s day.

It is important for us as Christians to meet each other, to greet one another and talk to one another as we do it here in the square, a square that embraces the whole world

On this fifth Sunday of lent, the gospel presents us with the woman who was caught in the act of adultery in which Jesus saved her from the condemnation of death penalty  Jesus’ behavior here strikes me I don’t hear any words of condemnation from him but  only words of love and mercy  to conversion, neither do I condemn you “ Go “  and  “sin no more “

Dear brothers and sisters,

The face of God is a merciful father and is always patient with us

Have you thought of the patience of God , the patience He has with each one of us? And that’s His mercy He is always patient with us. He understands us, He never tires of forgiving us

If we know how to return to Him with a contrite heart

Great is God’s mercy so the psalms say this morning

When these days I was able to read a book by Cardinal Kasper, a very good theologian on God’s mercy

It did me a lot of good to read this book

I am not plugging his book or anything and that’s not what I am doing here but it did me a great good to read this book  

Cardinal Kasper says in his book “to hear, to feel the word mercy, to feel mercy changes everything “ it is the best thing  we can feel “  the word mercy  

A little mercy makes the world less cold and more just. We need to understand this mercy of God well, this merciful Father who is very patient with us.

Let’s recall the words of prophet Isaiah   "Though your sins are like scarlet, God will make them as white as snow.”

I recalled when I was ordained as the bishop in Buenos Aires in 1992 .

We made a lots of mass for the faithful , a large mass for the sick was celebrated .  I went to the confessors.  At he end of the mass I got up because  had to confirm some young people   and a very humble lady came to me,  she was  over 80 years old, and I gazed at her, grand mother , because that's how we address our elderly , " would you like to go to the confession ? " I asked her. and then I said  "but surely you haven’t sinned . may be  the Lord  won’t be forgiving today. "The lady answered “ yes we all  have sinned , the Lord is always forgiving  . If the Lord has not been forgiving , the world will not exist any more"

I wanna ask her, "did you study to the Gregorian  university  ? true wisdom given by the Holy Spirit  Interior wisdom  

Let’s never forget

God never tires of forgiving us . Let's never forget that 
So Father what is the problem ? 

The problem is we do not ask for forgiveness , we do tire of asking for forgiveness   Let us never get tired. Let us never get tired. He is the loving Father who always forgives, who has that heart of mercy for all of us. And let us also learn to be merciful with everyone.

Let us call upon the intercession of the Madonna who has held in her arms the Mercy of God made human.

"Thank you for your welcome, and for your prayers," the first pope from Latin America said from a window of the papal apartment high above the square. "Pray for me," he added.

Dozens of flags from Francis' native Argentina were waving in the square, along with the Vatican's yellow and white standard, as the former cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio recited the traditional Sunday Angelus prayer, the first of his papacy.

Flags from other Latin American nations including Colombia, Peru, Paraguay and Mexico, could also be seen in the crowd.

One banner read: "Francis, You Are the Springtime of the Church", reflecting a groundswell of hope that the choice of a humble outsider has inspired in many Catholics weary of Vatican scandal and dysfunction.

Gabriel Solis, 33, an Argentine pilgrim, spoke of his "indescribable emotion".

"He will bring much peace because he seems more humble, more spontaneous," he said. "He seems closer to the people. We didn't feel that with the pope we had before."

The Angelus has traditionally been a moment to comment on international issues, but Francis instead used the occasion to emphasize his Italian roots.

The former Buenos Aires archbishop, whose parents hailed from Italy, said he chose to name himself after St Francis of Assisi because of his "spiritual ties with this land".

A million people may attend the pope's inauguration mass on Tuesday,,March 19 ,2013  including world leaders who are set to begin flying into Rome on Sunday.
 
The new pope inherits a church wrestling with an array of challenges
that intensified during his predecessor, Benedict XVI — from a priest
shortage and growing competition from evangelical churches in the
Southern Hemisphere where most of the world’s Catholics live, to a
sexual abuse crisis that has undermined the church’s moral authority
in the West, to difficulties governing the Vatican itself.

Benedict abruptly ended his troubled eight-year papacy last month,
announcing he was no longer up to the rigors of the job. He became the
first pontiff in 598 years to resign. The 115 cardinals who are under
the age of 80 and eligible to vote chose their new leader after two
days of voting.

Before beginning the voting by secret ballot in the Sistine Chapel on
Tuesday, in a cloistered meeting known as a conclave, the cardinals
swore an oath of secrecy in Latin, a rite designed to protect
deliberations from outside scrutiny — and to protect cardinals from
earthly influence as they seek divine guidance.

The conclave followed more than a week of intense, broader discussions
among the world’s cardinals where they discussed the problems facing
the church and their criteria for its next leader.

“We spoke among ourselves in an exceptional and free way, with great
truth, about the lights, but also about shadows in the current
situation of the Catholic Church,” Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of
Vienna, a theologian known for his intellect and his pastoral touch,
told reporters earlier this week.

“The pope’s election is something substantially different from a
political election,” Cardinal Schönborn said, adding that the role was
not “the chief executive of a multinational company, but the spiritual
head of a community of believers.”

Indeed, Benedict was selected in 2005 as a caretaker after the
momentous papacy of John Paul II, but the shy theologian appeared to
show little inclination toward management. His papacy suffered from
crises of communications — with Muslims, Jews and Anglicans — that,
along with a sex abuse crisis that raged back to life in Europe in
2010, evolved into a crisis of governance.

Critics of Benedict’s secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone,
said he had difficulties in running the Vatican and appeared more
interested in the Vatican’s ties to Italy than to the rest of the
world. The Vatican is deeply concerned about the fate of Christians in
the war-torn Middle East.

The new pope will also inherit power struggles over the management of
the Vatican bank, which must continue a process of meeting
international transparency standards or risk being shut out of the
mainstream international banking system. In one of his final acts as
pope, Benedict appointed a German aristocrat, Ernst von Freyberg, as
the bank’s new president.

He will have to help make the Vatican bureaucracy — often seen as a
hornet’s nest of infighting Italians — work more efficiently for the
good of the church. After years in which Benedict and John Paul helped
consolidate more power at the top, many liberal Catholics also hope
that the next pope will also give local bishops’ conferences more
decision-making power to help respond to the needs of the faithful.

March 19, 2013

10.31am GMT

>
Pope Francis presides over the solemn inaugural Mass of his Pontificate on the Feast of St. Joseph

Summary of inaugural Mass

Here is a summary of this morning’s events:
• Pope Francis has celebrated his inaugural mass in front of an estimated 150,000 people in St Peter’s Square in the Vatican.
• In his homily, the pope compared himself with Joseph, the husband of Mary who was given the mission by God of being her protector, that of Jesus, and that of the church. He said all people should take on this role of protecting those around them and the world itself, and said that goodness and tenderness were signs of strength, not weakness. Power is service, he said.
• The pope delighted the crowd when he arrived in an open-top popemobile and drove through the crowd, at one point getting out to kiss an ill or disabled man.

Statement from the President Barack Obama  on His Holiness Pope Francis

On behalf of the American people, Michelle and I offer our warm wishes to His Holiness Pope Francis as he ascends to the Chair of Saint Peter and begins his papacy.  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 two thousand years—that in each other we see the face of God.  As the first pope from the Americas, his selection also speaks to the strength and vitality of a region that is increasingly shaping our world, and alongside millions of Hispanic Americans, those of us in the United States share the joy of this historic day.  Just as I appreciated our work with Pope Benedict XVI, I look forward to working with His Holiness to advance peace, security and dignity for our fellow human beings, regardless of their faith.  We join with people around the world in offering our prayers for the Holy Father as he begins the sacred work of leading the Catholic Church in our modern world.

Statement from the Vice President Joe Biden  on His Holiness Pope Francis

Jill and I want to offer our congratulations to His Holiness Pope Francis, and extend our prayers as he takes on this holy responsibility. I am happy to have the chance to personally relay my well wishes, and those of the American people, when I travel to Rome for his Inaugural Mass. The Catholic Church plays an essential role in my life and the lives of more than a billion people in America and around the world, not just in matters of our faith, but in pursuit of peace and human dignity for all faiths. I look forward to our work together in the coming years on many important issues.

Source : The WhiteHouse 

 THU 14 MARCH 2013 Prime Minister Julia Gillard , Canberra

The Australian Government congratulates Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, on his election this morning as the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.
The election of a Pope from the "new world" is an occasion of genuinely historic proportions.
Today is an exciting day for Australian Catholics and perhaps especially for Australians of Argentinian descent.  My thoughts are with them all.

PM Julia Gillard Press office

   
Reporting was contributed by Daniel J. Wakin, Laurie Goodstein, Stefania Rousselle and Gaia Pianigiani from Vatican City, and Alan Cowell from Paris. 

^{Source : wikipedia and} 

New York Times , March 13th. 2013 

  Jamesrudybali

Bali Promotion Center
http://balipromotioncenter.com