New pope slips out of Vatican for morning prayer visit

Pope Francis I (Photo: NBC News)

Barely 12 hours after his election, Pope Francis quietly slipped out of the Vatican on Thursday to pray for guidance at one of Rome's great basilicas as he prepared to usher in a new age of simplicity and humility in a Church mired in scandal.

Francis, the Argentinian cardinal who has become the first pope born outside Europe in 1,300 years, went to Rome's 5th-century Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore where he prayed before a famed icon of Mary, the mother of Jesus, which is known as the Salus Populi Romani, or Protectress of the Roman People.

"He spoke to us cordially, like a father," said Father Ludovico Melo, a priest who prayed with the new pontiff. "We were given 10 minutes' advance notice that the pope was coming."

The first leader of the church to come from the Americas, home to nearly half the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, Francis also takes the title of bishop of Rome. He is known for his humility and lack of pretension. Read more

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