An estimated 250,000 pilgrims and a number of world leaders and royals, together with the US vice-president, JD Vance, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy; Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, and Britain’s Prince Edward, are anticipated to attend St Peter’s Sq. for the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV.
The service, which begins on Sunday at 10am native time, marks the official begin of the papacy of the primary US pontiff within the historical past of the Roman Catholic church.
The Chicago-born cardinal Robert Prevost, 69, was elected to succeed the late Pope Francis earlier this month after a conclave that lasted lower than 26 hours.
Different world leaders attending embody the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, the Argentinian president, Javier Milei, and the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese.
As is custom for an inaugural papal Sunday mass, Leo is predicted to reach in St Peter’s Sq. aboard a popemobile and spend a while greeting the gang.
Alongside a procession of cardinals, the pope then enters St Peter’s Basilica, the place he’ll obtain two presents that symbolise the papacy.
The primary is a gold signet fisherman’s ring, which is known as in honour of St Peter, a fisher who was the primary pope. The ring represents the start and finish of a papacy, and when a pontiff dies, it’s destroyed by a senior cardinal. Till 1842, the ring was used to seal official paperwork signed by the pope.
The second present is a lamb’s wool pallium, which symbolises the pope’s position as a shepherd, and is draped over his shoulders earlier than the mass begins.
JD Vance, who briefly met Pope Francis within the Vatican the day earlier than he died, and the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will symbolize the US.
Earlier than being elected as pope, Prevost criticised Donald Trump’s administration in a number of posts on his X account, primarily focusing on the federal government over its insurance policies on immigration.
In February he additionally shared on X an op-ed printed within the Nationwide Catholic Reporter titled: “JD Vance is improper: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others,” after feedback Vance, who transformed to Catholicism in 2019, made in an interview on Fox Information.
The Vatican has not confirmed or denied whether or not the social media posts have been genuine. Vance and Trump additionally clashed with Pope Francis over immigration.
Prevost’s criticisms led to a backlash from Trump’s hardline conservative supporters after he grew to become pope. The activist Laura Loomer, who wrote on X: “He’s anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, pro-open Borders, and a complete Marxist like Pope Francis.”
Pope Leo XIV will stay energetic on social media by means of the official papal accounts on X and Instagram, the Vatican stated final week. On X, the platform owned by Elon Musk, the billionaire tasked by Trump to cut back authorities spending and reduce jobs, @Pontifex communicates in 9 languages to a complete of 52m followers.
In considered one of his first posts on X, Leo wrote: “The Holy See is prepared to assist enemies meet, so they could look one another within the eye and so folks could also be given again the dignity they deserve: the dignity of peace. With coronary heart in hand, I say to the leaders of countries: allow us to meet; allow us to dialogue; allow us to negotiate!”
