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With Pope Francis, "be ready for improvisation"

AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano
Pope Francis puts flowers on the altar inside St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome March 14, 2013, in this picture provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.

(CBS News) VATICAN CITY - Within hours of his election as supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis called his predecessor on the phone. It was the first time a new pope had the opportunity to do such a thing, and it came without warning -- perhaps the first hint at what the Vatican spokesman said Thursday would likely be a papacy full of small surprises.

The Catholic Church is so steeped in tradition and ritual, so slow to implement any change at all, that even the Vatican's "trinity" of spokesmen seem to have grappled at times with what to tell the armada of journalists which had descended upon Rome.

"Be ready for improvisation," Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, warned during a news conference Thursday morning, flanked by his English and Spanish speaking deputies. He said it had been a "week of surprises."

What follows is a look at just some of the things that Pope Francis has done in the first 48 hours of his pontificate to surprise not just journalists and Church watchers, but even some of the Vatican's own top brass.

Click the "Next" button above to continue.

With Pope Francis, "be ready for improvisation"

Vatican TV
Pope Francis sits on the papal throne in the Sistine Chapel

In the Sistine Chapel, immediately after the conclave that saw him elected as the leader of the Church, Francis chose to stand in front of the altar to receive homage instead of sitting in the papal throne.

With Pope Francis, "be ready for improvisation"

Peter Macdiarmid

Pope Francis appeared before the world for the first time wearing a simple white cassock, without the famous red "mozzetta," the red shoulder cape worn by most pontiffs. And around his neck was the same pectoral cross he wore for years as Cardinal of Buenos Aires -- not a new version wrought in gold. The cross Francis wears is reportedly made of iron, and he allegedly has no intention to swap it.

With Pope Francis, "be ready for improvisation"

GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images
Pope Francis leaves Rome's Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica

As your editor walked Thursday morning into Vatican City, a police motorcade whizzed by. There was no large Mercedes or armored vehicle with flags in the middle of the motorcade, but rather a black Volkswagen. It was the new pope on his way to Rome's Santa Maria Maggiore basilica, riding, unusually, in a plain police vehicle. The night before, after his election, the new pontiff refused private transport back to the cardinals sleeping quarters, insisting on riding the bus back with his former colleagues.

With Pope Francis, "be ready for improvisation"

AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky
The Domus Internationalis Paulus VI hotel, where Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio stayed before entering the conclave and being elected Pope

The new pope requested another, unscheduled stop Thursday morning; at the hotel he had been staying in prior to conclave -- where he picked up his luggage, and at least tried to pay his own bill.

With Pope Francis, "be ready for improvisation"

OSSERVATORE ROMANO/AFP/GettyImages
Pope Benedict XVI is presented a new electric car, bearing the official papal license plate "SCV 1"

The pope's personal vehicle (not the Popemobile, which is reserved for special occasions) has long had the license plate: "SCV 1" -- The SCV stands for Stato della Citta del Vaticano (State of Vatican City), but the new pope has ordered the "1" to be removed.

With Pope Francis, "be ready for improvisation"

VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images
Vatican's gendarmes guard St. Peter's Square

In his recent life as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis was known to walk without a dramatic security detail through crime-ridden neighborhoods. He has now put Vatican security on notice that they shall be at his service, not vice versa. In other words, he intends to go where he pleases, when he pleases, and it's their job to keep up with him.

"He has a different style," Father Lombardi told the journalists Thursday, as they tried to pry firm details of the Holy Father's upcoming events out of him -- details which, in many cases, it seems may not be firm until moments before the events take place.

Your editor must now conclude this story, as Pope Francis has just begun a private Mass with his cardinals, five minutes ahead of schedule.

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