Pope opens Holy Week at Vatican

Vatican City (AP): Pope Francis is celebrating Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square, which is filled with thousands of people waving olive branches and palm fronds. The new pontiff arrived in an uncovered vehicle to start solemn Holy Week ceremonies, which lead up to Easter, Christianity's most important day. Francis wore bright red robes over a white cassock and presided over the Mass from an altar sheltered by a canopy on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica.A Cardinals, many of them among the electors who on March 13 chose the Roman Catholic church's first Latin American pope, sat in rows for the ceremony held under hazy skies on a breezy day. Francis touched on his Jesuit background as he spoke of Palm Sunday. He presided over the mass at an alter covered by a white canopy on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica, the report said. The Sunday before Easter marks Jesus' entry into Jerusalem which, Francis said, "awakened so many hopes in the heart, above all among humble, simple, poor, forgotten people, those who don't matter int he eyes of the world."