Pope's Installation Mixed Old, New

Benedict XVI took to the popemobile to greet the faithful in Rome after he was installed as the 265th leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

Much like the ride, the entire ritual was a careful mix of old and new, reports CBS News Correspondent Allen Pizzey for Sunday Morning.

The religious aspects of the ceremony stray little from any other Sunday Mass. The difference of course is the pomp and ceremony, epic in scale and planned to the smallest detail.

It's called the Ceremony of Investiture, another name for inauguration. It's the final act in the transfer of power and infallible authority from the 263rd successor to St. Peter to the 264th, known hereafter as Benedict XVI.

And while it may not look like it, this is the simple, modern version of a papal coronation. It's an effort to emphasize the new image of the church as a more humble and less regal institution, while maintaining traditions that have evolved through 2,000 years of history.

The most enduring symbol is the pallium, the simple scarf-like band of decorated lamb's wool placed on the pope's neck. The one draped on Benedict XVI was made from the wool of two lambs raised in a monastery.

First granted to popes by the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century, the pallium represents the sheep that the good shepherd carries on his shoulders.

Good shepherds, in the form of supreme pontiffs, used to be installed in six-hour spectacles in which they were crowned with a three-tiered tiara. The last pope to star in such a spectacle was Paul VI, who donated the tiara from his 1963 event to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.

And before his time, the almost medieval prevailed. In a 1939 ceremony, cardinals pledged obedience and loyalty by prostrating themselves at the new pope's feet in St. Peter's Basilica. Today, a symbolic ceremony of obeisance was made by twelve people -- including cardinals, deacons, unordained church workers, a married couple and two young people -- all coming from various parts of the world to represent and symbolize the universal nature of the church.

There is such a wealth of entrenched symbolism that much of it often escapes the eye. The man who puts it all together is Archbishop Piero Marini, who bears the appropriately grand title of master of papal liturgical ceremonies, with resources to match it.

Deep in the Vatican are enormous wardrobes filled with thousands of vestments, robes and other clothes and paraphernalia, many of them made especially for a specific occasion. Every robe, whether worn by the pope or his aides has a story. So, too, does each item the pope wears.

The Ring of the Fisherman, placed on the new pope's hand by three cardinals, dates back to the Middle Ages, when papal documents were sealed using the ring with the pope's own design on them. Each one is unique, and is broken when the pope dies.

In fact, almost everything connected with papal and even normal church attire is steeped in history.

It is, of course, possible for a pope to revert to older coronation rites that included the new pontiff being carried through St. Peter's Square.

In fact, the new pope is widely held to be a conservative who could take the church back to a sterner past.

But all indications so far, including his populist touches at the investiture, like the ride in the popemobile, are leading to the conclusion that under Benedict XVI, the church, like its pomp and ceremony, will continue to evolve to meet modern challenges.