First day of Pope Francis

During the press briefing today, we were told that after the first appearance and blessing last night, Pope Francis went back to the cardinal’s residence, Casa Santa Marta, on the little bus with the other cardinals rather than take the car with the plates SCV1.

At end of the meal they had together, at the time of toasts and little speeches (absolutely necessary in Italy), he quipped “God forgive you for what you have done.”

As mentioned before, he spoke last night with the former Pope, Benedict. He will visit him soon at Castel Gandolfo.

Pope Francis went this morning, his first full day as Pope, to the Basilia St. Mary Major to venerate the Madonna “Salus Populi Romani“.  She is especially dear to the Roman people. Classy.  He carried with him a little bouquet of flowers which he left at the altar. He prayed for a while.  He visited also the relic of the crib, the manger, of the Nativity, and then went to the Sistine chapel of that Basilica, upon which altar St. Ignatius Loyola said his first Mass on Christmas Eve.  And he prayed before the tomb of St. Pius V, also in that chapel.

continue at Fr. Z (live blogging)

Fr. Z also gives a good warning to commenter, warning of harshness and bashing before the pope has even been in office for 24 hours, but also not expecting “papolatry." I think there are strong emotions on both sides, some want to canonize him some want to condemn him before his first day.  A few other things to consider.  I was listening to Relevant Radio last night and one of the guys being interviewed was talking about how great it is to be Catholic and how the Holy Spirit picked Pope Francis and how the Cardinals cannot pick wrongly.  That is false.  Now I'm NOT SAYING they did pick wrong in this case.  Jimmy Akin had a great article prior to the conclave on the topic that is worth the read.  Again, even HYPOTHETICALLY if they did pick the "wrong" guy, that doesn't mean we dont pray for and love the man like any other pope.  As I have said before, I am not a capitalist, so I appreciate the fact this pope appears poised to take on materialism and the like.  As you may have read on this blog before, I love St. Francis and think it absolutely beautiful that a pope would take his name. 

Now, what is clear is that prior to becoming pope, Cdl. Bergoglio had a somewhat different approach to liturgy than Cdl. Ratzinger.  That doesn't mean he's going to try to roll back any changes that Pope Benedict made.  We now have Patheos searching out the boat Michael Voris is on to target it with their "Pope Francis is a conservative" drone missile.  Oye!  Cdl. Bergoglio is solid on moral issues, there are almost no cardinal who would not be considered "conservative" on moral issues.  I don't think anybody has concerns here over "conservatism."  But since the last pope's major focus was liturgy, and the next pope has a different record on liturgy then his predecessor, it seems like a valid topic of conversation to wonder what will happen.  But like Fr. Zed said, no reason to lament over something that hasn't happened.  He's not even 24 hours old yet. 

So, as always we pray for our Holy Father and learn from him *even in those cases we disagree.*  Docility is the forgotten virtue.