News: After Mass the Pope visited his former offices and apartment and took formal ownership of his new home, writes Paddy Agnew in Rome
It was a first day in the new job yesterday for Pope Benedict XVI as the 265th pontiff mixed the sublime with the prosaic, presiding over his first Mass as Pope on a day when he also took formal possession of his private apartment in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.
The day began in the Sistine Chapel where Pope Benedict concelebrated Mass with the cardinals in a ceremony that was technically "private" but which was transmitted live on Vatican TV.
In his homily, the new Pope immediately set about a major change of image, sending a message of willingness to talk to other Christian churches and other religions:
"I take it upon myself as my first task that of working tirelessly for the reconstitution of the full and visible unity of all the followers of Christ," the new Pope said.
"In the wake of my predecessors, I am fully determined to encourage any initiative that might prove useful for the promotion of contacts and understanding between the representatives of the different churches and ecclesiastical communities.
"I turn to everybody, even to those who follow other religions or who simply are looking for an answer to fundamental existential questions and have yet to find them.
"To everyone, I turn with simplicity and with affection, in the assurance that the church wants to construct an open and sincere dialogue in the search for true good for man and society."
These, quite clearly, were not the tones of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declaration of September 2000, Dominus Jesus.
That declaration judged other religions to be in a "gravely deficient state" and branded other forms of Christianity as "not churches in the proper sense but merely ecclesiastical communities".
After the Sistine Chapel Mass, the Pope then returned to the Doctrine of the Faith offices which had been his workplace for the past 24 years, greeting and being greeted by his former collaborators.
Yesterday afternoon he made a brief informal public appearance when he dropped by his apartment on Via di Porta Angelica, presumably to collect some personal items.
His appearance on foot in the Roman street prompted a huge stir among the tourists and pilgrims milling around St Peter's Square. Excited cries of "Viva il Papa" and "Auguri Papa" greeted him.
Without stopping, the Pope smiled and waved at the crowd.
Having visited his old apartment, Pope Benedict in the afternoon stole a look at his new home as he took symbolic possession of the private papal apartment in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.
Following Vatican tradition, the seals on the apartment formerly occupied by John Paul II were broken yesterday, allowing the Pope to take a quick look around his new digs.
Waiting to greet him were the camerlengo (chamberlain), Cardinal Eduardo Martínez Somalo, and Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the former private secretary to John Paul II.
Vatican TV images showed the three men walking into the private apartment where the Pope immediately sat down at the desk to write his name, "Benedetto XVI", on a few sheets of paper.
For all the formality, however, the papal apartment is apparently not ready yet, with the Vatican's painters due to be called in to give it a lick of paint.
All of which means that, for the time being, Pope Benedict will continue to live in the Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican "hotel" which housed all 115 cardinal electors during the conclave.
The Vatican also confirmed yesterday that the inauguration ceremony for the new pontificate will, as expected, take place next Sunday in the Basilica of St Peter, starting at 10am local time.