The papal bill Pope Francis insisted on paying himself... before catching the bus home after winning the election

• Pope Francis insisted on returning to his hotel to settle the bill himself
• The pontiff also chose to use a bus instead of a chauffeur driven car
• The 76-year-old has eschewed ceremonial traditions for a more humble approach

By Hannah Roberts

PUBLISHED: 19:04 EST, 15 March 2013 | UPDATED: 20:17 EST, 15 March 2013

With the spiritual wellbeing of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics is on his shoulders he must have quite a to-do list.

But despite his new responsibilities, Francis did not forget to stop off -  between engagements - to pay his hotel bill.

Staff at the central Rome priests’ residence where Bergoglio was staying before the conclave, were astonished when the newly elected Pope strolled in to collect his luggage and settle the bill.

Pope Francis insisted on returning to the hotel to collect his luggage and greet the staff before settling the hotel bill himself

‘I need to set a good example’ he joked.

He was driven to the hotel in a simple car and The Rev. Pawel Rytel-Andrianek, who teaches at the nearby Pontifical Holy Cross University and is staying at the residence, said that workers at the hotel were touched by the Pope's decision to return and bid them farewell.

'He wanted to come here because he wanted to thank the personnel, people who work in this house,' he said. 'He greeted them one by one, no rush, the whole staff, one by one.' Mr Rytel-Andrianek added that Francis apparently knew everyone by name.

A Vatican spokesman said: 'He wanted to get his luggage and the bags. He had left everything there.

The Pope also insisted on returning from the election in the minibus rather than in a special papal car

Pope Francis has already displayed his intentions to remain humble and connected to the people

'He then stopped in the office, greeted everyone and decided to pay the bill for the room... because he was concerned about giving a good example of what priests and bishops should do.'

Francis is already winning plaudits for his down-to-earth manner.

He has so far refused a motorcade and the official papal Jag for official business. And even on the night of the election he insisted on accompanying the other cardinals back to their lodgings, by mini bus, saying: ’I came on the bus, so I’ll go home on the bus.’

Meeting cardinals yesterday on his second day of Papal business he eschewed protocol in favour of kissing on two cheeks, shaking hands and hugging.

He told his deputies that old people like himself are ‘like good wine, getting better with age’, before urging them to impart their wisdom to the young.

The pontiff and his cardinals eschewed ceremonial robes for simple yellow ones during his first Mass

Insiders in the church are already expressing their belief that pope Francis is the right person to remove its scandalous image

Francis began his reign in unorthodox fashion as he shunned public events in order to pray to the Virgin Mary.

During his first Mass since being elected as supreme pontiff, Pope Francis and his cardinals were dressed in simple yellow robes over their cassocks, rather than the formal ceremonial outfits they would normally wear on such a major occasion.

Speaking in Italian without notes, he said: 'We can walk all we want, we can build many things, but if we don't proclaim Jesus Christ, something is wrong. We would become a compassionate NGO and not a Church which is the bride of Christ.

'He who does not pray to the Lord prays to the devil. When we don't proclaim Jesus Christ, we proclaim the worldliness of the devil, the worldliness of the demon.'

Pope Francis chose to visit the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica early on his first full day as the head of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics showing his dedication to his role as Bishop of Rome

'We must always walk in the presence of the Lord, in the light of the Lord, always trying to live in an irreprehensible way,' he said in a heartfelt homily of a parish priest, loaded with biblical references and simple imagery.

'When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we proclaim Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly,' he said

'We may be bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, all of this, but we are not disciples of the Lord,' he said.

It was a far simpler message than the dense, three-page discourse Benedict delivered in Latin during his first Mass as pope in 2005.

The difference in style was a sign of Francis' belief that the Catholic Church needs to be at one with the people it serves and not impose its message on a society that often doesn't want to hear it, Francis' authorised biographer, Sergio Rubin, said.

Francis took the helm of the 1.2 billion-member Church at a time of strife and intrigue, with the Vatican rocked by a string of sex abuse scandals, accusations of infighting within its central government and by allegations of financial wrongdoing.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1998 during a visit to the Villa 21-24 shanty town in Buenos Aires. Pope Francis has expressed his belief that priests should be out on the streets

But many within the church believe he could change it for the better.

'It seems to me for now what is certain is it's a great change of style, which for us isn't a small thing,' Mr Rubin said, recalling how the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio would celebrate Masses with homeless people and prostitutes in Buenos Aires.

'He believes the church has to go to the streets,' he said, 'to express this closeness of the church and this accompaniment with those who are suffering.'