In this photo provided by the Vatican paper L’Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis greets faithful from a side gate of the Vatican, Sunday, March 17, 2013.
“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. “