DETROIT — At his first encounter with Pope Francis, Cardinal Adam J. Maida asked the newly elected pontiff for a blessing on the people of the Archdiocese of Detroit, with which he readily complied.

Detroit’s archbishop emeritus said March 15 in a telephone interview from Rome that he had not known Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio before he was elected pope, “but I did meet him today, and had a little conversation with him.”

“I found him very warm and cordial, very easy to talk to, and full of life and energy, and very committed to the service of the Church and God’s people,” Cardinal Maida said.

The cardinal said he sees the new pope’s choice of the name Francis as “a great sign of how he’s going to shepherd God’s people.”

“Francis was a great saint who loved the poor and was very solicitous of the marginalized. He had a great love of the message of Jesus Himself, who said, ‘Blessed are the poor,’ and he could see the goodness of God’s creation,” the cardinal said.

And Cardinal Maida added that Pope Francis also brings to his office the charism of the Jesuits and their commitment to serving God and the Church.

During the cardinal’s stay in Rome, he celebrated Mass on March 10 at his titular church in Rome.

Although Cardinal Maida was not eligible to vote in the conclave because he is older than 80, he did take part in several pre-conclave meetings with the other cardinals from around the world as they met to discuss the qualities the successor to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI should have and the challenges facing the Church today.

The cardinal celebrated Mass at historic San Vitale Church, where a large congregation was present for the confirmation of 20 adults, although that part of the Mass was conducted by a Rome auxiliary bishop.

A photographer present for the Mass said people were “very happy” and that there was “lots of energy in the congregation.”

The Mass was celebrated in three languages: English, Latin and Italian.

Concluding the Mass, Cardinal Maida encouraged congregants to pray for those recently confirmed as well as for the pope emeritus and the cardinals who were about to enter the conclave.

Cardinal Maida was one of many cardinals celebrating Mass at their titular churches while in Rome. The institution of the College of Cardinals developed over time from the longstanding practice of the pastors of the principal Rome churches acting as a sort of advisory council for the popes. When the popes began making non-Roman cardinals, they still named each one the “titular” (that is, in name only) pastor of some church in Rome.

Although the churches have resident pastors and the titular pastors have no statutory authority over their titular churches, cardinals nevertheless often develop a special relationship with them.

Cardinal Maida’s titular church is named for St. Vitalis, a Roman slave martyred about 304 A.D. during the persecutions under the Emperor Diocletian. The church was originally built about 400 A.D. and consecrated by Pope Innocent I.

Although rebuilt several times over the centuries, most comprehensively by Pope Sixtus IV for the Jubilee Year 1475, the apse is thought to be from the original structure and the portico is also thought to date from sometime in the fifth century.

Among the past titular pastors of San Vitale was St. John Fisher, the bishop of Rochester, England, who was martyred under King Henry VIII.