faithful by taking a spin through vatican square. abc s alex perez is in rome. reporter: proving again his papacy will be different and personal, pope francis joined the crowd at st. peter s square easter sunday smiling, embracing the faithful. at one point accepting a soccer jersey of a popular team in his native argentina. and stopping for poignant moments like this one when he embraced and kissed a disabled child. a massive estimated crowd of 250,000 packed the square. a sign experts say of this pope s appeal. you have to really go back to the funeral of john paul ii, 2005, or maybe beatification to find a crowd similar to this. reporter: many arrived before sunrise to see francis celebrate his first easter mass as pope. in the three weeks since he was appointed the 76-year-old has angered some conservatives in the church. who argue he should act more like predecessors.