Argentina celebrates the new Pope

(WTNH) -- In his first full day as Pontiff, Pope Francis has set the stage for what may be a different sort of papacy.

Before celebrating his first mass as Pope Francis, he stopped by his hotel, picked up his own luggage and paid the bill himself.

In the meantime, his home country of Argentina is celebrating.

News 8's Ali Reed is in Buenos Aires so News 8's Darren Kramer talked with her Thursday afternoon via skype.

"We stepped outside and you could hear the cars honking in the streets. It just really became a celebration that lasted through the afternoon and evening," said News 8's Reed.

"As you see there, the catholic church is a pretty dominant influence in that part of the world, right," asked News 8's Kramer.

"It's a huge part of the world here. As soon as we heard the news we went down to the metropolitan cathedral which is the main Catholic church here in Buenos Aires and you could just see the influcence the church has on so many people here because hundreds you could tell probably left work early and those who didn't left right after work and came directly to this cathedral. There was a special mass held for the new Pope and just thousands of people. Many people commenting that they hadn't seen this many people in the square in this church in decades. you can can just see what a big role the church plays in peoples lives and I actually have here one of the headlines of the newspapers here.  This is the main newspaper, anohter headline here so you can see it's all over the place, it's all of course people are talking about," said News 8's Reed.