An estimated 250,000 pilgrims and a host of world leaders and royals, including the US vice-president, JD Vance, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy; Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, and Britain’s Prince Edward, are expected to attend St Peter’s Square for the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV.
The service, which begins on Sunday at 10am local time, marks the official start of the papacy of the first US pontiff in the history 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 less than 26 hours.
Other world leaders attending include the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, the Argentinian president, Javier Milei, and the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese.
As is tradition for an inaugural papal Sunday mass, Leo is expected to arrive in St Peter’s Square aboard a popemobile and spend some time greeting the crowd.
Alongside a procession of cardinals, the pope then enters St Peter’s Basilica, where he will receive two gifts that symbolise the papacy.
The first is a gold signet fisherman’s ring, which is named in honour of St Peter, a fisher who was the first pope. The ring represents the beginning and end of a papacy, and when a pontiff dies, it is destroyed by a senior cardinal. Until 1842, the ring was used to seal official documents signed by the pope.
The second gift is a lamb’s wool pallium, which symbolises the pope’s role as a shepherd, and is draped over his shoulders before the mass begins.
JD Vance, who briefly met Pope Francis in the Vatican the day before he died, and the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will represent the US.
Before being elected as pope, Prevost criticised Donald Trump’s administration in several posts on his X account, mainly targeting the government over its policies on immigration.
In February he also shared on X an op-ed published in the National Catholic Reporter titled: “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others,” after comments Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, made in an interview on Fox News.
The Vatican has not confirmed or denied whether the social media posts were authentic. Vance and Trump also clashed with Pope Francis over immigration.
Prevost’s criticisms led to a backlash from Trump’s hardline conservative supporters after he became pope. The activist Laura Loomer, who wrote on X: “He is anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, pro-open Borders, and a total Marxist like Pope Francis.”
Pope Leo XIV will remain active on social media through the official papal accounts on X and Instagram, the Vatican said last week. On X, the platform owned by Elon Musk, the billionaire tasked by Trump to reduce government spending and cut jobs, @Pontifex communicates in nine languages to a total of 52m followers.
In one of his first posts on X, Leo wrote: “The Holy See is willing to help enemies meet, so they may look each other in the eye and so people may be given back the dignity they deserve: the dignity of peace. With heart in hand, I say to the leaders of nations: let us meet; let us dialogue; let us negotiate!”
