REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis, speaking to an overflow crowd of more than 150,000 in St Peter's Square, urged the world on Sunday to be more forgiving and merciful and not so quick to condemn other people's failures.
"A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just," he told the cheering crowd from the window of the papal apartments overlooking the square, four days after his election.
Francis has signaled a sharp change of style from his more aloof predecessor, Benedict, and laid out a clear moral path for the 1.2-billion-member Church, which is beset by scandals, intrigue and strife.
"Brothers and sisters, good morning," he said, using a familiar style that has already become his hallmark.
The crowd in the square laughed when he mentioned a book by German Cardinal Walter Kasper. "I liked that book a lot but don't think I am trying to advertise books by my cardinals," he said.
Before he entered the tiny church of Santa Anna for the morning Mass, Francis stopped to greet well-wishers who had lined up outside a nearby Vatican gate. He chatted and laughed with many of them before pointing to his black plastic wrist watch and saying: "It's almost 10 o'clock. I have to go inside to say Mass. They are waiting for me."
Inside, he wore the purple vestments of the liturgical season of Lent, which ends in two weeks on Easter Sunday. At the end of the Mass, he waited outside the church and greeted people as they left the building, like a parish priest, asking many of them: "Pray for me".
His last words before he left the window were: "Have a nice Sunday and have a nice lunch".
