Deborah Akinyosoye
Pope Leo XIV set the tone for his papacy on Sunday with a call to stop exploiting nature and marginalising the poor at a mass attended by world dignitaries including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US Vice President JD Vance.
Ten days after Chicago-born Robert Francis Prevost became the first US head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, an estimated 200,000 people gathered to see his inaugural mass in St Peter’s Square.
The 69-year-old made his debut tour in a popemobile, smiling, waving energetically and blessing the cheering crowds at the Vatican.
In front of leaders including Zelensky and Vance, he then gave a homily where he called for the Church to be a transformational force in a world of division and hatred.
“In this our time, 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 marginalises the poorest,” he said.
Prevost, who was made a cardinal only in 2023 and is unknown to many Catholics, has repeatedly emphasised the importance of peace and social justice in his first few days as pope.
Later on Sunday, he was due to hold his first private audience with Zelensky.
“The martyred Ukraine is waiting for negotiations for a just and lasting peace to finally happen,” Leo said during a prayer at the end of the ceremony.
Yona Tukuser, a 39-year-old artist from Odessa in Ukraine who was amongst the crowd in St Peter’s Square, said Leo was “a pope for peace” who would “work very hard to build a bridge for dialogue”.
On Sunday, the pope — who spent many years as a missionary in Peru — warned against “closing ourselves off in our small groups”.
“We are called to offer God’s love to everyone, in order to achieve that unity which does not cancel out differences but values the personal history of each person and the social and religious culture of every people,” he said.
Leo’s elevation has sparked huge enthusiasm in the United States, but also some consternation elsewhere that a country with an already outsized political and military role in the world now boasts one its foremost spiritual leaders.
“There is going to be extra weight because he is American, I think there’s going to be a lot of extra eyes, and maybe criticisms,” said Sophia Tripp, a 20-year-old student visiting from Leo’s hometown of Chicago.
But she said she hoped he would “bring people together”, adding: “We are all human, and we should just all be loving to one another.”
Other guests on Sunday included German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
President Dina Boluarte of Peru — where the pope holds citizenship — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro also attended, as did a host of faith leaders and European royals.
Italian authorities deployed thousands of security officers for the event, alongside snipers on rooftops and anti-drone operations.