Pope Francis comes to Uganda: Lessons to learn on his maiden 1st appearlence at Basilca Rome

Unaware he would inherit the throne of St Peter, then Cardinal Bergoglio had in his decisive four-minute speech to fellow cardinals cut out the work for Pope Benedict XVI’s successor: He must be a man who helps the Church to go out to the existential peripheries that helps her to be the fruitful mother, who gains life from the sweet and comforting joy of evangelising. The crowd in St Peter’s Square in a drenched evening was frenzied, if not fanatical, when the White Smoke billowed to confirm the election of a new Pope. Cardinal Bergoglio who, upon accepting his election, had taken a papal name to honour Francis of Assisi then moved into the adjacent Sistine Chapel Room of Tears to wear his distinctive cassock and sash. He, against tradition, kept his old black shoes and silver pectoral cross instead of the traditional red and golden papal ones. The account by Austen Ivereigh shows that Francis spurned the ornate chair offered for him to sit on in the chapel, instead standing and embracing each cardinal. He declined to live in the splendour of papal apartments --- cavernous, marble-floored rooms with heavy furniture --- and chose to stay at Casa Santa Marta. “‘My brother cardinals have gone to the ends of the earth to give Rome a bishop’, he said when he appeared on the balcony at 8:22pm,” Ivereigh writes, to greet electrified faithful as their new leader. A groundswell of revolution was underway. On his return to Casa Santa Marta, the Pope declined the papal limousine and rode in a bus together with the electors. That night over dinner with cardinals, he said “may God forgive you for what you have done [electing him Pope]”. Four months later, in July 2013, the English and Welsh bishops had an audience with Francis. When he saw Westminster’s now emeritus Archbishop, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor who ran his campaigns, the Pope broke into a wide smile, and joked: “It’s your fault. What have you done to me?” On the first of his pontificate day, he crossed Rome to the Patriarchal Basilica of St Mary Major. On his return, he stopped at the Via della Scrofa to “collect his suite case --- went up and packed his belongings himself --- and to the astonishment of his staff, paid his bills, telling them that as Pope he should set an example”, something he has continued to do. Back at Casa Santa Marta, he against practice papal vested together with the cardinals in the Hall of Blessing the same way before his election. Ivereigh writes that when masters of ceremonies clamoured to guide him on protocols --- what to say, when as Pope -- he replied: “That’s alright; you don’t have to worry about me. I have been saying prayers for 50 years. But stay close, in case I need you. At prayers, he preached standing like priests and not seated like a Pope and rather than read from a prepared text, he spoke spontaneously”. That is the same way in which, while flying back to Rome in January, this year, he announced his six-day, three-nation Africa pastoral visit now underway incluuding Uganda Pope telephones his sister, newspaperman and parishioners In the impromptu manner that has come to define his papacy, Francis telephoned his dentist in Buenos Aires to cancel an earlier appointment, and dialed up to thank his newspaper supplier Daniel del Regno, saying “seriously, it’s Jorge Begoglio, I’m calling from Rome”. And his telephone call to parishioners at Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires was blared on loud speakers and, in the message, he tells them to “care for each other, the young and the old, and the world”. This is how Ivereigh captures the maiden telephone conversation between the new Pope and his sister, Maria Elena Bergoglio. Pope: “Look, it happened, and I accepted”. Maria: “But how are you, how do you feel?” Pope: “…[Francis laughs] ‘I’m fine, relax’.” Maria: “You looked really good on Television, you had a radiant expression. I wish I could give you a hug.” Pope: “We are hugging, we are together. I have you very close to my heart.” Maria to interviewee: “It’s not easy to explain what it is to talk to your brother, and your brother is the Pope […between sobs and laughs …] it’s complicated”. It was a new dawn, different ways of doing things, Vatican officials acknowledged. “We are going to have to get used to a new way of doing things,” Ivereigh quotes Vatican Spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi telling journalists who cover the Vatican. After celebrating his first Mass as Pope, Francis greeted the congregation one by one, prompting the media to christen him “the world’s parish priest”