Pope Francis delivered his first Mass as pontiff on Tuesday. Mustafa Hameed / Religio.

And in his homily on Tuesday, during his installation as the 266th pontiff of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis pressed on with the themes of service and humility. Noting that it was the feast day of Joseph, the husband of Mary and the protector of both Mary and Jesus, he drew a parallel between his duty to the church and Joseph’s to his family. “How does Joseph exercise his role as protector?” Francis asked the congregation. “Discreetly, humbly, silently.”

It is clear that Francis takes his obligation to the poor with that sense of understatement and humility—indeed, “humility” has been the word most bandied about by journalists and the faithful alike since his election last week. At his first meeting with the media as pope on Saturday, Francis called for “a poor church, for the poor.” The simplicity with which he lived his life as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, has already become the stuff of popular legend among enthusiastic Catholics. He eschewed the limousine and servants entitled to him in favor of a bicycle and cooking his own meals. But beyond that tone of simplicity, Francis himself inaugurates a number of firsts for the papacy.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Italian immigrants in 1936, Francis is the first pope from the southern hemisphere and the first non-European pope in modern times (popes from the Middle East and North Africa were not uncommon in the early centuries of Christianity). As a young man, he had part of a lung removed after falling ill with severe pneumonia, and it was only after this that he entered the Jesuit order.

Although he is the first Jesuit in history to become pope, Francis’ relationship with the Jesuit community is not a particularly warm one. He did not typically stay at the Jesuit residences during his trips to Rome in the past, and even his choice of name, Francis, may raise questions in that community: it was a Franciscan pope, Clement XIV, who suppressed the Jesuits in the 1700s.

Indeed, his past interactions with fellow Jesuits is at the heart of the greatest controversy around his election. Questions have been raised about Francis’ involvement in the disappearance of two Jesuit priests during Argentina’s Dirty War in 1976. Human rights advocates in the past have accused Francis, then Bergoglio, of cooperating with the country’s military dictatorship to arrest the dissident priests.

For his part, Pope Francis has been very clear about the choice of his name, telling the media that as soon as the ballots made it apparent that he would become pope, “Right away, with regard to the poor, I thought of St. Francis of Assisi.”

St. Francis of Assisi was renowned, among other things, for passing up material wealth to serve the poor and the sick. The parallels the name choice invites for Pope Francis’ ministry in Buenos Aires to the founder of the Franciscan order are numerous: an episode when Bergoglio washed and kissed the feet of a man suffering from AIDS became an instant folk legend when he was announced as Pope.

Today, riding through St. Peter’s in an open-roofed popemobile—consistent with the tone he has continued to set of openness and approachability in contrast to his predecessor, the rather academic, retiring Benedict—Francis stopped the vehicle to approach and bless a disabled man in the crowds.

So far, Francis has been defined by those folk legends and an overwhelming perception as a modest servant of God. His simple white robes have been a study in contrast to the more conspicuous red-and-gold cloaks of his predecessors at their inaugurations, and many Catholics see his personal manner as a welcome change from Benedict’s perceived reticence. Now, as Francis takes the reins of the church and the leadership of the 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide, the faithful will continue to watch him reveal himself in practice rather than in perception.

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was elected pope. He will take the name Pope Francis I. Photo by Wikimedia Commons.

UPDATE: Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina has been selected as the new pope. He will take the name Francis I. Before being elected pope, Bergoglio was Archbishop of Beunos Aires. With his election, the Vatican will be achieving a number of firsts: as an Argentine, he is the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere, as well as the first Jesuit pope. He will also be the first pope to take the name Francis.

Pope Francis’s inauguration mass will be held on Tuesday, March 19, at 9:30 a.m. in the Vatican. This weekend, he will hold his first meeting with members of the media.

Follow @Religio13 for live updates, and stay tuned for further news on Religio.

BREAKING: White smoke has been seen issuing from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, meaning that the papal conclave has succeeded in electing a new pope to lead the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics. An announcement over the identity of the pope is pending.

The conclave of 115 cardinal-electors took two days to decide on the new pope.

White smoke at the Sistine Chapel: the College of Cardinals have elected a new pope in the conclave. Photo by Getty Images.

The new pope will be robed and stop at the Pauline Chapel before being announced to the world with his old and new names.

Stay tuned for more updates on Religio.

See how the pope was elected in this video produced by Mustafa Hameed and Stephen Jiwanmall.

BREAKING: White smoke has been seen at the Vatican, and an announcement on the identity of the new pope is pending. (Updated: 2:30 p.m., March 13, 2013.)

As the Religio banner indicates, it was a day of black smoke from the Vatican: the Papal Conclave did not select a successor to Benedict XVI after the first day of voting. Here’s a look inside the secretive meeting to elect the new pope. Produced by Mustafa Hameed and Stephen Jiwanmall.

Those words have concluded the prayers at St. Patrick’s Cathedral every Sunday since Cardinal Timothy Dolan was appointed to lead Archdiocese of New York on Feb. 23, 2009. But on Feb. 17^th, the first Sunday after Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement that he would resign as pontiff, those words took on special meaning. In the days since the statement, Cardinal Dolan has emerged as a possible successor.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, watches a scripture reading from his chair at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Kimberly Brooks / Religio.

But while some entertained the prospect of an American pope, Dolan’s response to the speculation was concise and characteristically affable. When asked after the service about his chances of becoming pope, he replied, “I’d say that’s only from people who are smoking marijuana.”

That sort of straight-shooting gregariousness has won Dolan supporters across the United States, in his home diocese of St. Louis, in Milwaukee, where he later served as archbishop, and, most recently, in New York and even Rome. When he visited Italy last year for his elevation into the College of Cardinals, his easy friendliness and command of Italian reportedly endeared him to his hosts, many of whom referred to him as a papabile, a possible candidate for the Papacy.

On Sunday, the Mass began with a procession up the nave of St. Patrick’s as the choir sang “Lord Who Throughout These Forty Days.” Dolan entered the hall with a broad smile. The cardinal stopped more than once to greet familiar faces in the crowd, interrupting the measured gaits of the altar boys and other priests to greet several churchgoers. Gold staff in his hand, he strode up the steps toward the altar with unpostured ease, setting himself apart from the rest of his procession and their somber march up the stairs.

Before the Mass, Dolan could not present a starker contrast to Pope Benedict XVI. The Cardinal is tall, with a portly build and broad round ruddy cheeks, a far cry from the wizened, sometimes sagging figure of Benedict. During his homily, Dolan retold the familiar story of Adam and Eve with the vigor of a raconteur, an impression quite removed from many Catholics’ perception of Pope Benedict as a dry, retiring intellectual.

It’s not apparent that Dolan, despite his affability, would be a particularly less conservative pontiff than Benedict. However, views of the cardinal as a warmer, more caring individual are common among his parishioners. Kate Monaghan, the cathedral’s director of communications, said that she considered it his biggest influence upon the archdiocese. “He’s just full of joy, when he’s talking to a reporter or a little kid or an old person or anyone who’s upset, you can see he’s just radiating with that joy and peace.”

As Dolan sat upon his cathedral chair during a reading from Deuteronomy, he watched the reader standing at the pulpit with the sort of nonchalance that endears him  to his admirers:  he leaned his chin against his fist, he shuffled in his seat. He looked relaxed. At the conclusion of the reading, he exclaimed, “Thanks be to God,” in a tone of voice that was so conversational he may as well have been at a dinner party. He never appeared insouciant. He simply carried on in a way that underlined his effort to be seen as a man of the people, true to Midwestern roots, who could relate to the people in his manners and converse with them in their own language.

Dolan introduces the visiting Bishop Giovanni D’Ercole of L’Aquila, Italy, to his congregation. Kimberly Brooks / Religio.

That last quality was very literally on display a few moments later, when he introduced the visiting Bishop Giovanni D’Ercole of L’Aquila, Italy, in Italian, turning to his audience periodically to translate the exchanges into English. “They had a terrible destructive earthquake, quando? Three years ago. And the rebuilding? A little bit like us with the hurricane.”

When he introduced his next visitor, many sitting in the congregation perked up. “We also have a priest from the Diocese of Rome. You know who the Bishop of Rome is—Pope Benedict XVI,” Dolan said. He turned to the priest and again spoke a few sentences in Italian. “So I just asked him to bring our love to his bishop.”

His third and final guest was Patrick McConnell, a recently ordained priest from the cardinal’s old archdiocese in Wisconsin. The discussion about Dolan, McConnell said, had reached his peers in the Midwest as well. “He was my archbishop a long time ago, in Milwaukee,” said McConnell. Asked about the cardinal’s chances at the papacy, he said, “If it’s the Holy Spirit’s will, I hope that he can do it, do his best. I don’t speculate too much, I’m just a priest.”

The Pope’s announcement and the early discussion of Dolan as a contender has led to quite a lot of buzz. “Of course, we’re honored, everyone’s honored and happy about it,” Monaghan said. On Dolan’s odds, she said, “everyone thinks something different. When we were in Rome last year, a lot of Italians did say he was papabile.”

And about the possibility that he might stay in Rome after next month’s conclave? “We’re not thinking about that,” she added.

With an overflowing cathedral of worshippers before him, Dolan focused his sermon upon the virtue of humility. “And would you agree with me that this last week we’ve also had a sterling example of humility in Pope Benedict XVI. However startling that announcement was, what was the Holy Father telling us?”

The next portion of his homily, though elaborating on Benedict’s lesson, may as well have been a direct address to those speculating about his chances at the papacy. “The Holy Father was saying, you know everybody, in the end it’s not about me, it’s about Jesus and his church. It’s not about my desires, it’s not about my prestige, it’s not about my prominence, it’s not about my pride, it’s all about Jesus and his church.”

“That’s the kind of humility that Pope Benedict taught us,” he said.