VATICAN CITY— Pope Leo XIV, history’s first American pope, vowed Sunday to work for unity so that the Catholic Church becomes a sign of peace in the world, offering a message of communion during an inaugural Mass in St. Peter’s Square before an estimated 150,000 pilgrims, presidents, patriarchs and princes, AP reported.
Leo officially opened his pontificate by taking his first popemobile tour through the piazza, a rite of passage that has become synonymous with the papacy’s global reach and mediatic draw. The 69-year-old Augustinian missionary smiled and waved from the back of the truck, but didn’t appear to stop to kiss babies and the crowd.
During the Mass, Leo appeared to choke up when the two potent symbols of the papacy were placed on him — the pallium woolen stole over his shoulders and the fisherman’s ring on his finger — as if the weight of responsibility of leading the 1.4-billion strong church 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.
US Vice President JD Vance, one of the last foreign officials to see Pope Francis before he died, led the US delegation honoring the Chicago-born Leo after paying his respects at the Argentine pope’s tomb upon arriving in Rome late Saturday.
