Francis has officially begun his ministry as the 266th pope, receiving the ring and pallium symbolising his new papal powers at a grand ceremony in St Peter's Square.
A cardinal intoned the rite of inauguration at the start of the Mass, saying "The Good Shepherd charged Peter to feed his lambs and his sheep; today you succeed him as the bishop of this church."
Later six cardinals approached the Argentine-born pope to vow their obedience.
The Pope kissed several babies as he toured the square The Mass is being held in sun-drenched St Peter's Square before tens of thousands of people, including 132 world leaders. The Queen and Prime Minister David Cameron are absent.
The pallium is a strip of lambswool that represents the pope's role as a shepherd and the Fisherman's Ring is named in honour of the first pope St Peter, a fisherman by trade.
The Fisherman's Ring Before the lavish ceremony started, Francis toured a crammed St Peter's Square, where he kissed babies and blessed a disabled man.
In another sign of the informality that is already a mark of his papacy, Francis abandoned the bullet-proof popemobile frequently used by his more formal predecessor Benedict, to tour the sprawling square in bright sunshine.
Crowds had been pouring into the square and surrounding streets since before dawn.
Francis, who was elected by a secret conclave of cardinals last Wednesday, stopped frequently to greet the crowd and kiss babies held up to him.
He got out of the vehicle at one point to bless a disabled man.
The Mass, which started at 8.30am, GMT, formally installed Francis as the new leader of the world's 1.2bn Roman Catholics.
The crowds had begun gathering from the early morning The crowd may be the biggest in Rome since more than 1.5m people came to the city for the beatification of the late Pope John Paul II on May 1, 2011.
The Vatican said the Mass would be a simplified version of events in 2005 that brought Pope Benedict XVI to the papacy.
He will receive the visiting political leaders in the basilica after the Mass.
Argentina's President Cristina Kirchner will be among those present for the inauguration.
Francis abandoned the bullet-proof popemobile She met the Pope at the Vatican on Monday in what had the potential to be a tense meeting.
She and her predecessor and late husband, Nestor Kirchner, defied church teaching to push through a series of measures with popular backing in Argentina, including mandatory sex education in schools, free distribution of contraceptives in public hospitals and the right for transsexuals to change their official identities on demand.
In 2010, Argentina became the first Latin-American country to legalise same-sex marriages.
But today those differences appear to have been brushed aside. Kirchner gave the Pope a mate gourd and straw to hold the traditional Argentine tea that the new leader of the Catholic church loves. To her surprise, she got a kiss in return.
"Never in my life has a Pope kissed me!" Ms Fernandez said afterward.
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