On Tuesday 19th of March the day the  Church remembers Saint Joseph, less than a week after his election as 265^th Successor of Peter , Pope Francis  was back in Saint Peter’s  Square.

It was 9:30 on the dot and a glorious sunny day and this first Jesuit and first Latin American Pope was there amid crowds, thousand strong, to celebrate the liturgical rite of inauguration of his Petrine Ministry.The Sacred College of Cardinals to elect him to the papacy – formed a crown around him – eager to present him to the Universal Church as the Chief Shepherd;   And was with them in procession – to the sound of the singing of the Litany of the Saints – that  Pope Francis emerged from the great door of Saint  Peter’s Basilica.

Wearing white vestments he made his way to the altar – removing  the  two pointed mitre symbolising the old and new testaments and  putting down the pastoral staff he was carrying.

Despite the crowds there was prayerful silence in Saint Peter’s Square; Christians and non-Christians alike had come  eager to witness the rite in which the Bishop of Rome was to receive  the two liturgical symbols of his  Petrine Ministry: the fisherman’s ring in gold-plated silver representing the Apostle Peter and the keys;  And the pallium, a narrow stole of white wool made out of lamb’s wool and sheep wool and embroidered with five red silk crosses symbolizing the five wounds of  Christ – held in place by  three pins representing the three nails of Christ.

The celebration  began with the pallium being placed on the pope’s shoulders by the proto-deacon  Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran, representing the culminating moment of this inauguration. It had been symbolically laid out over the tomb of Saint Peter overnight – as a sign of the continuity of the papacy. Continue reading.