Wednesday, April 20 2005 17:52 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Vatican City: In his first homily as pontiff today (Apr 20, 2005), Pope Benedict XVI pledged to work towards Christian unity and inter-faith dialogue, while expressing surprise over his election.

"Confounding all my expectations, divine providence through the votes of the venerable father cardinals has called me to succeed this great pope," he said in the mass in the Sistine Chapel, where he was elected the 265th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church yesterday (Apr 19, 2005).

"Grace and peace and abundance to all of you," he began, before pledging to use his papacy to "work unceasingly for the reconstruction of the full and visible unity of all Christians."

"A demonstration of good intentions is not enough," he said, delivering the homily in Latin, as tradition dictates. "We need concrete gestures that enter the soul, and move consciences, calling each one to that interior conversion that is the basis of any progress on the ecumenical path."

Thanking the cardinals for the trust they had placed in him, he asked them "to support me with prayer and with constant, active and knowledgeable cooperation."

With Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" making an awesome backdrop, he said: "These past hours, two contrasting feelings reside in my soul. On the one hand, a sense of inadequacy and of human turmoil for the responsibility that I was given yesterday. On the other, I feel a deep gratitude to God who has not abandoned his flock but continues to lead it through the times."