ROME — Leaders from around the world converged on Rome for the second time in less than a month on Sunday with a spectacular display of Vatican pageantry celebrating Pope Leo XIV’s installation as the new leader of the Catholic Church.
Leo, who was elected after the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday, last week offered the Vatican as location for possible Ukraine peace talks, urging the two sides: “Let us meet, let us talk, let us negotiate.” And even before he has officially taken his seat, Rome on Sunday once again became the backdrop for unofficial bilaterals, with the ceremony in St. Peter’s Square providing the opportunity for huddles and handshakes between leaders.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shook hands at the ceremony, in quite a contrast to their public clash in February at the White House.
Zelenskyy also had an audience with Leo at the Vatican Sunday morning, the Holy See said. The Ukrainian president is the first leader to meet the new pope since his election. The two had already spoken by phone and Leo has expressed support for Ukraine.
Pope Leo’s first test in papal peacemaking may arrive Sunday if as expected he meets Vance on the fringes of the ceremony. Before his election, Leo repeatedly criticized the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy on social media and butted heads with Vance.
Leo rode through St. Peter’s Square on the white popemobile for the first time on Sunday, greeting a crowd of an estimated hundred thousand Catholics, tourists, royals, diplomats and delegations, as well as clerics and cardinals.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio were among those attending, as well as Canadian, and Italian leaders Mark Carney and Giorgia Meloni.
One notable absence was U.S. President Donald Trump whose iconic meeting with Zelenskyy inside St. Peter’s Basilica overshadowed Pope Francis’ funeral last month.
Crowds on Sunday filled St. Peter’s Square and surrounding streets with pilgrims chanting “Viva il Papa” (Long Live the Pope) and waving U.S. and Peruvian flags to pay tribute to the first pope from the United States, who also holds Peruvian citizenship, following many years as a missionary in the South American country.
Cardinal Robert Prevost, a former missionary and teacher, was chosen by cardinals in a secretive conclave this month that lasted barely 24 hours.
The first American pope, his papacy begins at a time of crisis of U.S. leadership, as the Trump administration seeks to roll back Washington’s centrality in multinational organizations.
In his first week in the job, Leo has signaled that he intends to put peace at the center of his pontificate, saying that “it is the peacemakers that make history.” His first words in St. Peter’s Square on the night of his election were “Peace be with you all” and he has offered the Vatican as a mediator in global conflicts, saying war is “never inevitable.”
On Sunday, he arrived an hour before the ceremony started to tour the piazza on his open-topped popemobile. Flanked by 12 security guards, with helicopters buzzing overhead and sharpshooters on the terraces overlooking the square, he greeted crowds in and around St. Peter’s, waving at well-wishers and lifting babies into the air for a blessing.
In his homily, Leo outlined his priorities, calling for “a reconciled world in a time when “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 called on Christians to unite with other religions and “all people of good will, in order to build a new world where peace reigns.”
As part of the ceremony, Leo was greeted by cardinals vowing loyalty to him and kissing his hand. And he received two items: a liturgical vestment known as a pallium, a strip of lambswool that represents his role as a shepherd, and a fisherman’s ring with a design of St. Peter holding the keys to heaven.
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