VATICAN CITY
Washington Post
By Anthony Faiola
Published: March 16
VATICAN CITY — Inside a vast hall in the Holy See on Saturday, Pope Francis was greeting a procession of well-wishers when a visually impaired radio journalist with a guide dog approached. Without skipping a beat, the new pontiff smiled, leaned over and blessed the golden retriever, eliciting surprised chuckles from the crowd.
The moment captured the emerging story line of a papacy in the early stages of transformation by the first New World pope. As he eschews the trappings of his exalted office — forgoing the use of the red papal cape in public and mingling directly with cardinals rather than receiving them formally from an elevated white chair — Francis is already building a reputation here as “the casual pontiff.”
It is an impression the Vatican, an institution in crisis and in search of a new beginning, is doing little to dispel. Only time will tell the extent to which an austere Argentine cleric, known for taking public transit and kissing the feet of drug addicts and AIDS patients, can remold the ancient office. Questions, for instance, are still swirling about his actions during Argentina’s so-called “dirty war” from 1976 to 1983.
But as the new pope has appeared to exude humility, even charm, during his first few days in Vatican City, there appears to be an early sense, at least among the church hierarchy, that an institution craving a new image may have just found its man.
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