Pope Leo XIV inauguration: Pope wants Catholic Church to be a sign of peace
The Pope appeared to choke up as symbols of the papacy were placed on him during his inauguration mass. He will meet Volodymyr Zelensky, who shook hands with JD Vance at the event.
Pope Leo XIV has vowed to work for unity so that the Catholic Church becomes a sign of peace in the world, as he presided over his inaugural mass in St Peter’s Square before an estimated 150,000 pilgrims, world leaders and royals.
In his homily, Leo said he wanted to be a servant to the faithful through the two dimensions of the papacy: love and unity.
He said: “I would like that our first great desire be for a united church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world.”
Anthony Albanese is among the world leaders at the event. US Vice-President JD Vance and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky shook hands as they met for the first time since their White House clash.
The new pontiff called for the Church to be a transformational force in a world of division and hatred.
“In this our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference, and an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth’s resources and marginalises the poorest,” he said.
Leo, who spent many years as a missionary in Peru, also warned against “closing ourselves off in our small groups”.
“We are called to offer God’s love to everyone, in order to achieve that unity which does not cancel out differences but values the personal history of each person and the social and religious culture of every people,” he said.
Leo appeared to choke up when the two potent symbols of the papacy were placed on him — the pallium woollen stole over his shoulders and the fisherman’s ring on his finger — as if the weight of responsibility had just sunk in.
He turned his hand to look at the ring and seal and then clasped his hands in front of him in prayer.
Leo will hold his first private audience on Sunday with Zelensky after the mass, the Vatican said in a statement.
The new Catholic leader referred to the Ukraine-Russian conflict in his Regina Coeli prayer at the end of the mass, saying: “The martyred Ukraine is waiting for negotiations for a just and lasting peace to finally happen.”
He also offered prayers for the people of Gaza — children, families and elderly who are “reduced to hunger”. He recalled how “in Myanmar, new hostilities have destroyed innocent young lives”.
The 69-year-old made his first tour of St Peter’s Square in his popemobile before Sunday’s mass, smiling, waving and blessing the crowds gathered for his inauguration mass 10 days after his election as head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
The Catholic Church’s first US-born pontiff, stood in the white vehicle as it drove among tens of thousands of flag-waving and cheering pilgrims at the Vatican.
After the public tour in the square, Leo went into the basilica to pray at the tomb of St Peter, considered to be the first pope, under the basilica’s main altar and then processed out into the piazza for the mass.
Vance, one of the last foreign officials to see Pope Francis before he died, paid his respects at the Argentine pope’s tomb upon arriving in Rome late on Saturday and headed the US delegation honouring the Chicago-born Leo.
Strict diplomatic protocol dictated the seating arrangements, with both the US and Peru getting front-row seats thanks to Leo’s dual citizenship.
Vance, a Catholic convert who tangled with Francis over the Trump administration’s mass migrant deportation plans, was joined by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who arrived in Rome ahead of time to try to advance Russia-Ukraine peace talks.
Peruvian President Dina Boluarte was one of about a dozen heads of state attending, as well as Zelensky and Albanese. Russia was represented by the culture minister, Olga Liubimova.
Diplomatic protocol also dictated the dress code: While most wore black, the handful of Catholic queens and princesses — Charlene of Monaco and Letizia of Spain among others — wore white in a special privilege allowed them.
Three dozen of the world’s other Christian churches sent their own delegations, headed by patriarchs, reverends, ministers and metropolitans, while the Jewish community had a 13-member delegation, half of them rabbis.
Hordes of tourists flocked to St Peter’s Square to witness Pope Leo receive the symbols of his papal power, some running to secure the best view of the festivities.
The day has special meaning for American Josefina Atamiranda, who is studying theology at the Angelicum in Rome – the same university where Pope Leo received his doctorate.
“It is a blessing to be able to be here for this historic moment. It is a once-in-a-lifetime moment,” she said from the centre of St Peter’s Square.
“There are hundreds of thousands of people here but somehow it feels like home.”
Sunshine blanketed the city as beaming pilgrims made their way through security checks and jostled for a spot.
Joanna Hammerschmidt, from Ohio, happened to be on a trip to Italy to celebrate her twin sons’ graduation when news that the Catholic Church would have an American-born pope broke.
“It is just so exciting. We always planned to come to Italy but seeing the pope do his first service is just an added bonus.”
The jubilation, thick in the air on Sunday, is a very different mood to the solemnity that cloaked the city in April when hundreds of thousands gathered in the very same streets to farewell Pope Francis.
The contrast is not lost on Perth’s Archbishop Tim Costelloe, who attended Francis’s funeral on April 26 and has returned to Rome to witness Leo’s formal accession to head of the Catholic Church.
“When you reflect on the death of Pope Francis and the enormous number of people who came for his funeral to express their gratitude, and now the excitement about the election of Pope Leo, it is an indication of the papacy to speak into what is often a very troubled situation around the world,” he said.
“I think that helps to explain that not just Catholics, or even just Christians, but people generally are interested and excited and filled with a sense of hope.”
In the early days of his papacy, Leo has made it clear he plans to use his influence to push for global peace. He told church leaders earlier this week the Holy See was “always ready to help bring enemies together face-to-face, to talk to one another, so that peoples everywhere may once more find hope and recover the dignity they deserve, the dignity of peace”.
“Let us meet, let us talk, let us negotiate,” he added.
Greg Bennet, the Bishop of Sale in regional Victoria, suspects Sunday’s homily will press a similar message.
“I think that those major themes of peace, the dignity of life, and attention to the missionary aspects of the church, to the poor … I think that’s what he’ll pick up (in the homily).”
All eyes will be on world leaders as they take their chairs in St Peter’s Square for the inauguration mass, particularly Vance and Zelensky after their infamous Oval Office row earlier this year.
Albanese will hold a bilateral meeting with Zelensky after the mass on Sunday.
The Prime Minister, who arrived in Italy on Friday night, began his weekend with an espresso at his favourite Roman haunt, Caffè Greco.
Fresh from the campaign trail, Albanese – accompanied by his travelling pack of security and staff – then stretched his legs with a half-hour walk to Domus Australia to meet the archbishops of Sydney and Melbourne, Anthony Fisher and Peter Comensoli.
“One of the things about a campaign is you get so little opportunity to exercise, you are up early, you have dinners at night …”, Albanese tells them.
Fisher was quick with a compliment: “Well, I think you are looking fit.”
The archbishops gave Albanese a tour of the restored chapel connected to Domus Australia, which was opened by Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal George Pell in 2011, alongside Australia’s new ambassador to the Holy See Keith Pitt.
Pitt, a former Nationals MP from Bundaberg, took up his Vatican posting just weeks before Francis’s death.
“Following a period of great sadness with the passing of Pope Francis, this is now a time of renewal, great joy and celebration. There is a lot of excitement,” he told The Australian on Saturday.
“I got reminded again today that Pope Leo does love Tim Tams, so having a Pope who knows and admires Australia and its people, as I’m sure others have before him, but just the fact that he has visited, I think that will make a real difference.”
Pitt is expected to have a private meeting with Leo in coming weeks, where he will present the new pontiff with a ceremonial gift.
“I wouldn’t want to pre-empt what I may or may not take, but you can be assured it’ll have an Australian flavour.”
Australia Post better get ready with a shipment of double coat Tim Tams.
Additional reporting: AP, AFP
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