Vatican City ? Pope Benedict XVI personally greeted the most powerful prelates in the church Friday in a ceremony that illuminated two central elements of the new papacy: his vast Vatican experience and his efforts to cement bonds with his beloved predecessor.

One by one, more than 150 cardinals kissed the pontiff’s hand and chatted briefly with him under the sweeping frescoes in the Clementine Hall, where mourners first saw John Paul II’s body after his death April 2. The encounters with the new pope were easy and familiar.

In this picture made available by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI, center, addresses the College of Cardinals as they meet Friday at the Vatican.

The pontiff had served in a highly influential Vatican post since 1981 and is well known by nearly all the cardinals and members of the Vatican bureaucracy — a sharp contrast to John Paul’s arrival in 1978 as a Vatican outsider with few established confidants.

The cardinals came one by one and knelt before the pope, who was wearing all-white robes and seated on a gilded chair. He exchanged a few words with each, but spent longer with Cardinal Karl Lehmann, president of the German Bishops’ Conference. The pope responded with gestures that may become familiar to the world as his papacy evolves: raising his eyebrows while listening and flashing a quick smile.

The Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday is expected to draw 500,000 people and a host of dignitaries, including German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Prince Albert II of Monaco and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

In this picture made available by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI greets Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Germany during a meeting with the College of Cardinals, at the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI had his first working meeting with the College of Cardinals on Friday.