Live Updates: Pope Leo XIV’s Inaugural Mass Draws World Leaders and Catholic Faithful
The Vatican said at least 150,000 people attended the Mass at St. Peter’s Square, which marked the start of the pontificate of the first American to lead the Roman Catholic Church. Vice President JD Vance was among the dignitaries.
Pope Leo XIV presided over his inaugural Mass on Sunday morning in front of a crowd of tens of thousands in St. Peter’s Square, including world leaders and top church officials, for a service that officially installed him as leader of 1.4 billion Roman Catholics.
Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia were among the leaders who had flown to Rome to attend the Mass, which marks the official start of Leo’s pontificate. Mr. Vance and Mr. Zelensky met briefly and shook hands.
During his homily, Leo echoed his predecessor, Pope Francis, with a message of inclusivity and unity. He said the cardinals who elected him had sought a “shepherd capable of preserving the rich heritage of the Christian faith and, at the same time, looking to the future, in order to confront the questions, concerns and challenges of today’s world.” At times during the Mass, Leo appeared visibly moved.
At least 150,000 people attended, the Vatican said. Wearing traditional vestments, Leo prayed in Latin in the early part of the Mass that he would be a worthy successor of St. Peter, who, as ecclesiastical tradition teaches, was chosen by Jesus to be the first leader of the church.In the final moments of the event, priests gave communion to people in the crowd.
Before the proceedings began, the pope took his first ride through St. Peter’s Square in an open top popemobile, waving at the crowd, as people greeted him with claps and cheers.
Born Robert Francis Prevost, a native of Chicago known to his friends as Bob, Leo was chosen by cardinals as the 267th pope this month, becoming the first American pontiff. His election defied the longstanding belief that cardinals would not select a leader from a global superpower that already has considerable influence in world affairs.
Here’s what we’re covering:
Early priorities: Leo has highlighted some issues that he intends to make central to his papacy, including warning of the threats posed by artificial intelligence. Echoing themes foregrounded by Francis, Leo has also called for an end to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and pledged to lift up “ordinary people.”
Catholics in America: Leo’s election came at a time of extraordinary complexity and tension among Catholics in the United States, where the church hierarchy, ordinary Catholics, an influential right-wing Catholic media ecosystem and Catholic power in Washington are often at odds.
JD Vance: The American vice president’s return to the Vatican on Sunday is a potential reset of the strained relationship between the bishop of Rome and conservative Catholics in the United States.
Pope Leo just hugged his brother Louis from Florida, who greeted him after the Mass. It was warm hello amid the other greetings for the line of world leaders.
Pope Leo just shook hands with Vice President JD Vance inside St. Peter’s Basilica after the Mass. A historic moment, the first pope from America meeting the first Catholic convert to become vice president. The pope also just greeted Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
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The ancient image of Our Lady of Good Counsel, from the Marian Shrine of Genazzano in Italy.Credit…Genazzano Municipality Administration, via Reuters
Near the altar during Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural mass on Sunday was an image of the Virgin Mary — one that carries significant meaning to the new pope.
It is a copy of the ancient image of Our Lady of Good Counsel, from the Marian Shrine of Genazzano in Italy.
Leo’s first trip outside Rome as pope, two days after his May 8 election, was to the shrine, about 40 miles east of the city. The shrine, according to its website, has been run since 1356 by the Augustinians, the religious order to which Leo belongs.
The image of the Virgin is said to have miraculously appeared on a wall of the church in 1467 It was much loved by Leo XIII, whose name lineage the new pope chose to continue — a deliberate reference to Leo XIII’s work leading the church through a difficult time and helping marshal it into the modern world, the Vatican said.
But the previous Leo never managed to visit the shrine, according to Vatican News. Just over a year ago, Leo XIV managed to go there as a cardinal to celebrate Mass.
After his visit to the shrine again this month, Pope Leo told those present that he “wanted so much to come here” in his first days as pope.
At the end of the Mass, the pope thanked the faithful, Romans, the foreign delegations and other religious leaders who attended. He said that during the liturgy he felt the spiritual presence of his predecessor, Pope Francis, “who accompanies us from the sky.” He said we must not forget those who are suffering in the world’s wars. “In Gaza, the surviving children, families, older people are reduced to hunger,” he said. In Myanmar new hostilities broke “young innocent lives.” Ukraine, he said, “awaits negotiations for a fair and lasting peace.”
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Pope Leo XIV delivering his homily on Sunday.Credit…Filippo Monteforte/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Traditions and modernity. Unity and diversity. Evangelization not proselytization.
In an outdoor Mass on Sunday formally inaugurating Pope Leo XIV as the 267th leader of the Roman Catholic Church, the new pontiff sought to chart a path that included as many people in the church as possible.
In a homily delivered to a crowd in St. Peter’s Square, he said that the cardinals who elected him had sought a “shepherd capable of preserving the rich heritage of the Christian faith and, at the same time, looking to the future, in order to confront the questions, concerns and challenges of today’s world.”
The pope said that he “was chosen, without any merit of my own, and now, with fear and trembling, I come to you as a brother.” He added that he wanted “us all to be united in one family.”
Framing his mission by echoing Jesus’ role as a “fisher of humanity in order to draw it up from the waters of evil and death,” he returned to the priority of Pope Francis, his predecessor, that the church keep to its evangelizing mission. But, he said, it “is never a question of capturing others by force, by religious propaganda or by means of power,” but through love.
The new pope added that a pastor, like Peter, the first pope, needed to be close to “the flock without ever yielding to the temptation to be an autocrat, lording it over those entrusted to him.”
But Pope Leo emphasized the idea of a “coexistence of diversity” within the church. It was an idea central to Saint Augustine, whose name was given to the order that the new pope once led, and in which he has spent his ecclesiastical life. “Brothers and sisters,” he stressed, “I would like that our first great desire be for a united Church, a sign of unity and communion.”
This was a message many of the cardinals wanted to hear, after periods of division in the church. But they wanted to make sure Leo’s view of unity did not mean going backward, and that the new pope’s vision included Francis’ inclusive spirit.
“In this our time,” the pope added, expanding his message outside the church, “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 marginalizes the poorest.” He said he sought a “unity which does not cancel out differences but values the personal history of each person and the social and religious culture of every people.”
The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics stood before his cardinals, dignitaries from around the world, and thousands of faithful in the square and said that the healing for those wounds rested in Jesus. “Listen to his offer of love and become his one family,” he said. But he added that it was a path to peace that he hoped to walk “with those who follow other religious paths, with those who are searching for God, with all women and men of good will.”
He concluded, “This is the missionary spirit that must animate us; not closing ourselves off in our small groups, nor feeling superior to the world.”
Gian Maria Vian, a church historian and former editor of the Vatican newspaper, says the pope’s Latin pronunciation is good, with just a slight anglophone accent.
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Friars at lunch in the dining room of the convent of St. Thomas of Villanova in Trujillo, Peru, where Robert Francis Prevost, the current Pope Leo XIV, lived from 1988 to 1998.Credit…Marco Garro for The New York Times
Among the priests celebrating the inaugural Mass for Pope Leo XIV on Sunday are many fellow members of the Order of St. Augustine, who traveled to Rome from around the world. So many friars are in town, in fact, that they couldn’t all stay at the order’s home near the Vatican and are spilling over into the Jesuits’ house up the street.
Father Joe Roccasalva, 35, a priest with the Midwestern Augustinians who teaches algebra in Tulsa, Okla., remembered how Leo, then known as Robert Francis Prevost, would sometimes stay with them in Chicago when he was serving as leader of the order and visiting his brother who lives in the area.
The moment Father Roccasalva heard Cardinal Prevost’s name announced from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, he broke down crying in front of his students, he said. He felt both joy and sadness: Pope Leo was a brother in their community, he said, and would most likely not be able to be in as regular touch as he had been in the past.
“He was a good spiritual leader for us,” he said. “Now he is a spiritual leader for the world.”
Augustinian formation shaped Leo from a young age, when he started at an Augustinian boarding high school at around age 14. He graduated from Villanova University, a citadel of Augustinian education outside Philadelphia.
The order encourages a life of interiority, and Augustinians try to strike a balance between contemplation and action, said the Rev. Robert P. Hagan, the current prior provincial at the Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of Villanova, who also came to Rome for the inaugural Mass.
“Augustine talked about the inner teacher,” he said, referring to the Catholic saint. “Go within your heart, where the inner teacher lives, where you meet God and listen.”
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President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and his wife, Olena Zelenska, arriving for mass in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday.Credit…Isabella Bonotto/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine attended Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural Mass on Sunday, an appearance that came after Leo expressed a personal desire to help end the war with Russia.
The newly elected pope, who said on Friday that he would “make every effort so that this peace may prevail” — and offered to host talks between Ukraine and Russia at the Vatican.
“The Holy See is always ready to help bring enemies together, face to face, to talk to one another,” Leo added. The pope’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said the offer was “the availability of a space” and called the Vatican an “appropriate place” for peace talks.
The U.S. secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said the Vatican could be a venue for Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations, but neither Russia nor Ukraine have indicated whether they would take the pope up on his offer.
On Sunday, Mr. Rubio attended the inaugural Mass, as did Vice President JD Vance. Mr. Zelensky shook hands with the vice president as he arrived.
It was the second time Mr. Zelensky has visited the Holy See in recent weeks. When he attended the funeral of Pope Francis on April 26, Mr. Zelensky met privately with President Trump, which yielded a striking image of the two men facing each other on metal chairs in an ornate hall. It was the first time they had met since a disastrous sit-down at the Oval Office in February.
It was unclear whether the Mass would coincide with any informal meetings on Ukraine. Mr. Zelensky made no mention on social media of whether any sideline discussions would take place. On Saturday, though, he posted that he had met with Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada and President Karin Keller-Sutter of Switzerland separately in Rome to discuss how to increase pressure on Russia to end the war.
The search for peace in Ukraine has gathered pace in recent weeks. Delegations from the two sides held their first direct talks in Turkey on Friday and later agreed on a prisoner exchange.
Pope Francis, who died on April 21, regularly called for peace in Ukraine.
Since being elected, Leo has signaled a deep interest in ending the war. Last week, he used his first Sunday address to call for an “authentic, just and lasting peace” in Ukraine and for all prisoners of war to be freed. He added that children should be returned to her families. Although he did not specify which children, many Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia against the wishes of their families since the war began.
The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, standing before his assembled cardinals, dignitaries representing countries from around the world, and thousands of faithful in the square, concluded that the healing for wounds rested in Jesus. “Listen to his offer of love and become his one family,” he said. But he added that it was a path to peace that he hoped to walk “with those who follow other religious paths, with those who are searching for God, with all women and men of good will.” He concluded: “This is the missionary spirit that must animate us; not closing ourselves off in our small groups, nor feeling superior to the world.”
Framing his mission as an echo of Jesus’ role as a “fisher of humanity in order to draw it up from the waters of evil and death,” Leo returned to the priority of his predecessor, Francis, that the church keep to its evangelizing mission. But, he said, it “is never a question of capturing others by force, by religious propaganda or by means of power,” but through love. The new pope echoed the old pope again, saying that a pastor, like Peter, the first pope, needed to be close to “the flock without ever yielding to the temptation to be an autocrat, lording it over those entrusted to him.”
Leo said in his homily that the cardinals tasked with electing a pope had sought a “shepherd capable of preserving the rich heritage of the Christian faith and, at the same time, looking to the future, in order to confront the questions, concerns and challenges of today’s world.” He added in his homily that “I was chosen, without any merit of my own, and now, with fear and trembling, I come to you as a brother.” He added that he wanted “us all to be united in one family.”
The pope began to deliver his homily. Speaking in Italian he said that he starts his ministry “with a heart full of gratitude.” He also said that “the death of Francis filled our hearts with sadness.”
The rite of “obedience” to the pope carried out by 12 people representing the people of God, both lay and clerics, is purely symbolic today. “It’s a recognition on the part of the community that Leo XIV, the successor of Peter, guides the church” and that the faithful have “entrusted themselves to his guidance,” Father Giuseppe Midili a consultant with the Vatican’s liturgical office told reporters on Saturday.
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Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, arriving in Rome on Saturday.Credit…Pool photo by Jacquelyn Martin
Presidents, prime ministers and royalty were among those present in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday morning for Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural Mass, a service that marks the official start of his pontificate.
Here are some of the world leaders who have flown to Rome to attend the Mass that installs Pope Leo as the leader of 1.4 billion Roman Catholics.
United States
Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio
Mr. Vance and President Trump have congratulated Pope Leo and celebrated his American heritage, but it’s unclear what kind of a relationship they might have with him. In February, months before Cardinal Prevost was named pontiff, a social media account under his name expressed some criticism of the vice president over his interpretation of Catholic doctrine.
Ukraine
President Volodymyr Zelensky
Leo spoke with Mr. Zelensky last week in his first known call with a foreign leader. They discussed cease-fire proposals for the war in Ukraine, Mr. Zelensky said on social media, describing the conversation as “very warm and truly substantial.” On Friday, Pope Leo offered to host peace talks between Ukraine and Russia at the Vatican.
Canada
Prime Minister Mark Carney
Mr. Carney is a Catholic but was unable to attend Pope Francis’ funeral because it occurred two days before Canada’s general election, the Canadian news media reported. “Canada looks forward to working with His Holiness to build a world guided by solidarity, justice, and sustainability,” Mr. Carney said shortly after the new pope was chosen.
Peru
President Dina Boluarte
Ms. Boluarte led a delegation from the country where Pope Leo spent much of his career and where he holds citizenship. She has celebrated the pope’s ties to Peru. “His closeness to those most in need left an indelible mark on the heart of Peru,” she wrote on social media when he was elected.
Italy
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella
Ms. Meloni has lauded Leo’s “spiritual legacy that follows the path traced by Pope Francis.” In a phone call with Leo on Thursday, she affirmed support for the Vatican’s peace efforts and Italy’s commitment to working with the Vatican on the ethical development of A.I., the Italian government said.
Other leaders
These were some of the other leaders the Vatican said were attending the Mass.
Australia: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
Belgium: Prime Minister Bart De Wever
European Union: Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
France: Prime Minister François Bayrou
Germany: Chancellor Friedrich Merz
Israel: President Isaac Herzog
Lebanon: President Joseph Aoun
Lithuania: President Gitanas Nauseda
Netherlands: Queen Maxima, Prime Minister Dick Schoof
The choir is singing “Tu Es Petrus,” or “You are Peter,” recalling the words that Catholics believe that Jesus said to the apostle Simon Peter, in the Gospel of Matthew: “On this rock I will build my church.” (Rock in Latin is ‘petra’)
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines has given the pope the Fisherman’s Ring, which features an image of St. Peter holding a key and a net. The apostle was a fisherman who first fished for food and then for souls. The pope’s name, Leo XIV, is engraved inside the ring. He will use the ring as a seal.
The pope just received the pallium, a white woolen vestment decorated with crosses that symbolizes the role of the pope as a good shepherd. The booklet for the Mass says that the pallium is also a symbol of “the Lamb Crucified for the salvation of the human race: the lamb’s wool is meant to represent the lost, sick or weak sheep which the shepherd places on his shoulders and carries to the waters of life.” The pallium drapes over the shoulders, with two black flaps falling in front and behind. The Rev. Giuseppe Midili, a consultant with the Vatican’s office of liturgical celebrations, told reporters on Saturday that it’s meant to recall the image of a shepherd carrying sheep on his shoulders. “He accompanies his sheep,” he said.
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Students sit on the lawn outside St. Thomas of Villanova Church on the campus of Villanova University in Pennsylvania.Credit…Matthew Hatcher/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Alumni, students and friends of Villanova University met in Rome on Saturday for an impromptu reunion on the eve of the inaugural Mass for perhaps the university’s most famous graduate: Pope Leo XIV.
The reunion was hastily organized in the days after Leo was elected on May 8. At a trattoria not far from the Vatican, the group mingled over cantaloupe and prosciutto, and marveled that they shared a university with the first American pope.
Cristina Caputi, 19, a freshman at Villanova, flew to Rome with her parents and sister. She hoped Leo would make more space for women in the church. “I saw a nun on TikTok saying the same thing, so hopefully!” she said.
Zack Evans and his wife, Ale Zozos, both 33, made a detour during their honeymoon in Venice, coming to Rome for just a few hours to celebrate Leo before heading to a Formula 1 race. Mr. Evans is Catholic, but hasn’t been very involved in church recently. “It feels like this is an event that can bring you back into the fold,” he said.
A few alumni planned to attend the Mass in St. Peter’s Square and bring Villanova signs in hope that the pope might see them in the crowd.
Michonne Baker, whose daughter Ambyr is a Villanova student and soccer player, hoped Leo might move the church in a more progressive direction, following the lead of his predecessor, Pope Francis. “He’s got a lot of the same types of ideas as the previous pope,” she said.
Leo, then Robert Francis Prevost, graduated from Villanova, in the Philadelphia suburbs, in 1977 with a degree in mathematics, then entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine. He received an honorary doctorate from Villanova in 2014 alongside Dr. Jill Biden, a fellow alum.
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Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, the second lady, in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday.Credit…Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters
When Vice President JD Vance met with Pope Francis at the Vatican last month, it was after Francis had harshly criticized the Trump administration over its treatment of migrants — and had specifically called out Mr. Vance’s interpretation of a Christian concept.
Now Francis has died, and Mr. Vance has come back to greet his successor, Leo XIV, who is American and appears inclined to use a more conciliatory tone than Francis. But there could still be some friction. For one thing, there is no sign that Pope Leo’s thoughts on the concept at issue, “ordo amoris,” or the order of love, are any different than those of his predecessor.
The concept was articulated in the fifth century by St. Augustine, and Pope Leo, who belongs to the Augustinian religious order, appears to have criticized the vice president’s interpretation of it when he was still a cardinal.
Mr. Vance referred to the idea in an interview and on social media to defend President Trump’s America First policies, saying it meant that one should prioritize love for family or community over obligations to more distant people, such as foreigners.
But Francis said in a February letter to American bishops that “the true ordo amoris” is not about hierarchies but about “love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.”
Pope Leo, who read St. Augustine’s writings closely in the process of joining the religious order, also weighed in that month. A social media account under the name of Robert Prevost, the pope’s name, shared an article that called the vice president’s interpretation “wrong.”
One of his friends confirmed that this was the pope’s thinking.
“He has been a critic of some rather poor theologizing and philosophizing, particularly about St. Augustine’s hierarchy of love,” Rev. Anthony Banks, a fellow Augustinian who has known the pope for decades, said last week. “What the vice president of the United States says is completely erroneous.”
The Robert Prevost account on X, which has since been deleted, also highlighted other articles criticizing the Trump administration’s positions on immigration.
On Friday, the pope said that “no one is exempted from striving to ensure respect for the dignity of every person,” especially the most frail and vulnerable, including immigrants.
“My own story is that of a citizen, the descendant of immigrants, who in turn chose to emigrate,” the pope said during a meeting with diplomats. “All of us, in the course of our lives, can find ourselves healthy or sick, employed or unemployed, living in our native land or in a foreign country, yet our dignity always remains unchanged.”
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A message from the Augustinians Across the World Foundation near the Vatican this month. The order has fewer than 3,000 members globally.Credit…Murad Sezer/Reuters
Pope Leo, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, is an American with Peruvian citizenship, but his identity may have been most deeply molded by his connection to the Order of St. Augustine. It began when he was 14 and led to his ordination in 1982 as an Augustinian priest.
He moved to Peru as an Augustinian missionary and eventually ran the order for 12 years from Rome. In that position, he developed extensive international connections that helped raise his profile in the conclave of cardinals who elected him.
As the first Augustinian friar to become pope, Leo is expected by Augustinians to emphasize missionary outreach and the importance of listening widely before making decisions, both central to the Augustinian way of life.
“The Holy Father will certainly be inspired by this search for communion and dialogue,” said Pierantonio Piatti, a historian of Augustinians with the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, a Vatican office. That would mesh with the concept of “synodality,” fulfilling Francis’ vision of a church that brings bishops and lay people together to make big decisions.
“The other great element of Augustinian spirituality,” Dr. Piatti added, is a “search for balance between action and contemplation, between contemplation and action.”
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