VATICAN CITY (AP) — He still goes by "Bergoglio"
when speaking to friends, seems reluctant to call himself pope and
has decided to live in the Vatican hotel rather than
the grand papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace.
It might seem as if Pope Francis is in a bit of denial over his new job
as leader of the world's 1.2-billion Catholics.
Or perhaps he's simply changing the popular idea of what it means
to be pope, keeping the no-frills style he cultivated
as archbishop of Buenos Aires
in ways that may have broad implications for the church.
The world has already seen how Francis has cast aside many trappings
of the papacy, refusing to don the red velvet cape Benedict XVI wore
for official occasions and keeping the simple,
iron-plated pectoral cross he used as bishop and archbishop.

On Thursday, his belief that a pope's job is to serve the world's lowliest
will be on display when he washes the feet of a dozen young inmates
at a juvenile detention center in Rome.
Previous popes have celebrated the Holy Thursday ritual,
which re-enacts Christ's washing of his disciples' feet
before his crucifixion,  by washing the feet of priests in
one of Rome's most ornate basilicas.
Such moves hint, even at this early stage, only two weeks into his papacy,
at an apparent effort by Francis to demystify the office of pope.
Unlike his predecessors, he doesn't sign his name "Pope Francis,"
ending his official correspondence simply "Francis."
To those closest he is still Bergoglio, and this week,
Italian state radio broadcast a voice mail he left wishing a friend Happy Birthday. "It's Bergoglio," the pope said, using the surname he was born with.
Even on Day One, Francis didn't acknowledge he was pope.
Speaking on the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica after his election
the night of March 13,
Francis told the tens of thousands gathered there
that the cardinals' task during the conclave had been
to "give Rome a bishop."
And bishop of Rome is the title he has emphasized
repeatedly ever since — not vicar of Christ, or
any of his other official titles.
"I do think there is something about trying to reduce the awesomeness,
the grandeur and majesty of the papacy," said
John Allen Jr., Vatican columnist for the National Catholic Reporter.
"Part of this is just his personality. He's never liked pomp and circumstance."

Indeed. Even after he became Argentina's top church official in 2001,
the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio never lived
in the ornate church mansion that Pope John Paul II stayed in
when visiting, preferring simple rooms in a downtown building,
warmed by a small stove on frigid weekends
when the heat was turned off.

He did his own cooking and rode the bus to get around town.
In that same vein, Francis announced this week that
he wasn't moving into the papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace
and would stay instead in the Vatican's Santa Marta residence,
the antiseptically clean, institutional-style hotel where
he and the 114 cardinals who elected him pope were sequestered
during the conclave. Calling the hotel home, Francis indicated that
he wants to live in a community with ordinary folk,
not the gilded cage of the Apostolic Palace.
He will eat in the common dining room
as he has for the past two weeks,
and celebrate 7 a.m. Mass in the hotel chapel as he has each day,
inviting Vatican gardeners, street sweepers, hotel workers and
newspaper staff to attend.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said
the decision to stay put in the hotel had been taken "for now."
"We'll see how it works," he said.
In one concession, Francis did move in recent days
from the hotel's cramped Room 207, where he had stayed as cardinal,
into Room 201, the larger papal suite, which
has a study and sitting room to receive guests.
The furnishings are a step up from the simple fare of the rest of the hotel:
dark wood armoires and a bed with a matching headboard
carved with an image of Christ's face.
Francis' initial refusal to move into the hotel's papal suite is perhaps understandable, given the reluctance with which he accepted the job
in the first place.

On Wednesday, the Vatican revealed what Francis said
in the Sistine Chapel when he was formally asked
if he accepted the outcome of the vote.
"I am a big sinner. Trusting in the mercy and patience of God,
in suffering, I accept," he answered.

The decision not to take up residence in the Apostolic Palace
might also signal a desire to keep his distance
from the dysfunctional Vatican government
Francis has inherited.
One of his major tasks will be to rid the Vatican bureaucracy of
the mismanagement, petty turf battles and allegations of corruption
that were revealed in leaks of papal documents last year.
Francis does go to work each day at his "office" in the Apostolic Palace,
where he meets with various Vatican officials.
He uses the ornate Clementine Hall for larger audiences,
such as his first formal addresses to representatives of
the world's religions and the diplomatic corps accredited
to the Holy See.

In his March 20 audience with religious leaders,
Francis sent an important signal about his view of the papacy
and its relationship with other Christians.
He addressed the spiritual leader of the world's
Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
I, as "my brother" — a fraternal nod to a church that
split from Rome 1,000 years ago and
has remained separated in part over disputes about
the primacy of the pope.
To make that message abundantly clear,
Francis' chair was on the ground —
the same level as all the other religious leaders —
and not on a raised platform.
Two days later, when Francis greeted diplomats
accredited to the Holy See,
his chair woas up on a platform. "To have a simpler view,
less grandiose sense of the trappings of the papacy
might be saying, 'I want to be able to relate to you
at a different level,'" said Anton Vrame of
the Greek Orthodox archdiocese in the U.S.
Francis' gestures, choices and emphasis were clearly
an indication of his personality and
the simplicity for which Jesuits are known, Vrame said.
"Is it a further simplification of the papacy that
we've seen over the years? Potentially.
It remains to be seen," he said. ___
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield