With grateful acknowledgment to the Department of External Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church 

On March 19, 2013, a delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate led by the
chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion
of Volokolamsk, attended the enthronement of Pope Francis of Rome, which took
place on St. Peter’s Square in Rome. The delegation included Metropolitan Antony
of Borispol, chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church; Metropolitan Platon of
Feodosia and Kerch; Bishop Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow
Patriarchate administrative secretariat; and Hieromonk Antony (Sevryuk), rector
of the church of the Holy Protomartyr Catherine in Rome. The delegation is
accompanied by Rev. Milan Zust of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian
Unity, and M. Palacio, DECR staff member.

Present at the ceremony of enthronement were His Holiness Patriarch
Bartholomew of Constantinople, His Beatitude Tikhon, Archbishop of Washington
and Metropolitan of All America and Canada; Supreme Catholicons-Patriarch of All
Armenians Karekin II, as well as delegations from Local Orthodox Churches,
representatives of the Anglican Communion churches, various Protestant
denominations and other religious confessions. There were 132 representatives of
states including heads of states and governments who have diplomatic relations
with the Vatican. The Russian Federation was represented at the ceremony by
Sergey Naryshkin, chairman of the State Duma.

The solemn ceremony began with presentation of the papal insignia to the
newly-elected pontiff. Cardinal Protodeacon Jean-Louis Tauran placed the pallium
(omophoros) on the pontiff’s shoulders, and Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Dean of the
College of Cardinals, placed upon his finger the fisherman’s ring with an image
of St. Peter. Then Pope Francis, assisted by cardinals, celebrated the mass in
Latin. Some prayers and readings were pronounced in Italian, English, French,
Greek and other languages. After the Reading of the Gospel, Pope Francis
addressed himself to the hundreds-of-thousands-strong crowd in St. Peter’s
Square with a sermon devoted to St. Joseph the Worker whose memory falls in the
Catholic calendar on March 19. After the singing of the Lord’s Prayer, Patriarch
Bartholomew and Catholicos-Patriarch Karekin II came up to the pontiff to
exchange kiss of peace with him. The service ended with the solemn singing of
the Latin hymn ‘Salve, Regina’ (‘Rejoice, O Queen’) devoted to the Most Holy
Mother of God.