While the new Pope, Francis, has made a point of emphasizing simplicity—rather than wearing the usual gold ring, he has insisted on one made of silver—today he gave way to Vatican tradition and formally assumed his office following most (but not all) of the elaborate ceremonial script worked out in minute detail over more than a thousand years. Even within this deeply traditional institution, the script has changed, sometimes quite substantially…

Alexander Stille on the inauguration of Pope Francis: http://nyr.kr/WTLifE

Photograph by Spencer Platt/Getty.