Pope Francis Inauguration To Draw Huge Crowds

Pope Francis is due to be inaugurated in Vatican City later in front of an expected one million people.

Heads of state, royalty and religious leaders will be among the guests at a two-hour ceremony in St Peter's Square, although the Queen and Prime Minister David Cameron will be absent.

Large crowds are also expected in Buenos Aires in the Pope's native Argentina, where big screens have been erected outside the city's main cathedral.

An estimated 300,000 people listened to Pope Francis's first Angelus prayer

The Vatican said the Mass would be a simplified version of events in 2005 that brought Pope Benedict XVI to the papacy.

The service will make several gestures towards Eastern Rite Catholics and Orthodox Christians, with the Gospel chanted in Greek not Latin and Eastern Rite prelates joining the Pope at an initial prayer at the tomb of St Peter under the Basilica's main altar.

Pope Francis will wear the Fisherman's Ring

The Vatican also released details of the coat of arms and official ring Pope Francis will receive during the Mass. Both are in keeping with his simple style.

The coat of arms is the same Jesuit-inspired one he used as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, while the ring was once offered to Pope Paul VI, who presided over the second half of the Second Vatican Council, the church meetings that modernised the church.

Argentina's President Cristina Kirchner will be among those present for the inauguration.

She met the Pope at the Vatican on Monday in what had the potential to be a tense discussion.

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.

Pope Francis meets the Argentine president

But today those differences appear to have been brushed aside. President 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!" she said afterwards.

Britain will be represented at the ceremony by HRH The Duke of Gloucester, as well as cabinet minister Kenneth Clarke and Baroness Warsi, the Minister for Faith and Communities.

A worker makes final preprations for the inauguration Mass in Vatican City

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe also arrived in Rome for the inaugural Mass.

He is the subject of a travel ban by European nations in protest at his human rights record but it does not affect his trips to the Vatican through Italy.

Former Pope Benedict XVI will not attend the Mass and is likely to be watching on television at the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo outside Rome.

He is due to greet Pope Francis in an unprecedented meeting at the retreat next Saturday.

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