VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV officially opened his pontificate as history’s first American pope on Sunday, presiding over an inaugural Mass in St. Peter’s Square before tens of thousands of people, presidents, patriarchs and princes in a ceremony that blended ancient ritual, evocative symbols and a nod to modern-day celebrity.
Leo launched the celebration 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, used at home and abroad to bring popes close to their flock. The 69-year-old Augustinian missionary smiled and waved from the back of the truck, but didn't appear to stop to kiss babies.
Security was tight as civil protection crews in neon uniforms funneled pilgrims into quadrants in the piazza and up and down the boulvard that leads to it.
US Vice President JD Vance, one of the last foreign officials to see Pope Francis before he died, paid his respects at the Argentine pope’s tomb upon arriving in Rome late Saturday and was heading the US delegation honoring the Chicago-born Leo.
Leo — a 69-year-old Augustinian missionary elected May 8 after a 24-hour conclave who appears a bit more timid than Francis — smiled and waved from the truck as security guards jogged alongside.
After the public tour in the square, Leo goes into the basilica to begin the solemn ceremony to inaugurate his ministry in a series of rites that emphasize the service that he’s called to perform in leading the Catholic Church. He prays first at the tomb of St. Peter, considered to be the first pope, under the basilica’s main altar and then processes out into the piazza for the Mass.
Strict diplomatic protocol dictates the seating arrangements, with both the United States and Peru getting front-row seats thanks to Leo’s dual citizenship. Vance, a Catholic convert who tangled with Francis over the Trump administration’s mass migrant deportation plans, is being joined by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who arrived in Rome ahead of time to try to advance Russia-Ukraine peace talks.
Peruvian President Dina Boluarte is one of around a dozen heads of state attending, as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Russia is being represented by the culture minister, Olga Liubimova.
Three dozen of the world’s other Christian churches sent their own delegations, headed by patriarchs, reverands, ministers and metropolitans.
US seminarian Ethan Menning, 21, from Omaha, Nebraska, wrapped himself in an American flag, purchased at a truck stop in Iowa, to celebrate.
“Rome always felt like home for a Catholic, but now coming here and seeing one of our own on the throne of Peter ... it almost makes Jesus himself more accessible,” he said.
Kalen Hill, a pilgrim from the US, got to St. Peter’s soon after the gates opened Sunday morning and said he never expected an American would lead the 1.4-billion strong church.
“I would say all the Americans are emotional about it,” he said. “It is really powerful for American Catholics who sometimes feel separated from the world church to be brought in and included in this community through Pope Leo.”
During the Mass, Leo will receive the two potent symbols of the papacy: the lambswool stole, known as a pallium, and the fisherman’s ring. The pallium, draped across his shoulders, symbolizes the pastor carrying his flock as the pope carries the faithful. The ring, which becomes Leo’s official seal, harks back to Jesus’ call to the apostle Peter to cast his fishing nets.
The other symbolically important moment of the Mass is the representational rite of obedience to Leo: Whereas in the past all cardinals would vow obedience to the new pope, more recent papal installations involve representatives of cardinals, bishops, priests, deacons, nuns, married couples and young people participating in the rite.
Another change from the past is that Sunday’s Mass isn’t a coronation ceremony, which used to involve the pope receiving a tiara, but is merely known as a “Eucharistic Celebration for the start of the Petrine ministry of the Bishop of Rome.”
In the days since his historic election, Leo has already sketched out some of his key priorities as pope. In his first foreign policy address, he said the Holy See’s three pillars of diplomacy were peace, justice and truth. In his first major economics address, he emphasized the Catholic Church’s social doctrine and the search for truth. It’s not known if he’ll use his installation homily as a mission statement as some of his predecessors did.
In his Oct. 22, 1978 installation homily, St. John Paul II uttered a phrase that became something of a refrain of his pontificate and the ones that followed: “Be not afraid! Open wide the doors to Christ!”
Pope Benedict XVI quoted his predecessor during his installation homily, on April 25, 2005, and offered a meditation on the symbols of church unity represented by the pallium and fisherman’s ring. Francis’ installation homily, on March 19, 2013, focused on the need to protect the environment, an early hint of what would become one of the priorities of his pontificate.
Leo has vowed all efforts to find peaceful ends to the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere. But as a priority, he has also identified the challenges to humanity posed by artificial intelligence, making the parallel to the challenges to human dignity posed by the industrial revolution that were confronted by his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, who was pope from 1878-1903.
After the homily and at the end of the Mass, Leo will offer a final blessing and then go into the basilica to greet the heads of the more than 150 official delegations attending.
Security was tight, as it was for Francis’ funeral on April 26, which drew an estimated 250,000 people. Rome authorities are planning for another 250,000 on Sunday. The piazza and main boulevard leading to it, and two nearby piazzas were set up with giant television screens, and dozens of portable toilets have been erected in a nearby park.
Pope Leo XIV formally opens his pontificate with Mass in St. Peter's Square before tens of thousands
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Pope Leo XIV formally opens his pontificate with Mass in St. Peter's Square before tens of thousands
- First US pope Leo XIV takes to popemobile ahead of inaugural mass
With Iran war exit elusive, Trump aides vie to affect outcome
- Aides debate when and how to declare victory even as the conflict spreads across the Middle East
- In taking America to war, US President Donald Trump offered little explanation
WASHINGTON: A complex tug-of-war inside the White House is driving US President Donald Trump’s shifting public statements on the course of the Iran war, as aides debate when and how to declare victory even as the conflict spreads across the Middle East.
Some officials and advisers are warning Trump that surging gasoline prices could exact a political cost from the US-Israeli attacks on Iran, while some hawks are pressing the president to maintain the offensive against the Islamic Republic, according to interviews with a Trump adviser and others close to the deliberations.
Their observations to Reuters offer a previously unreported glimpse inside White House decision-making as it adjusts its approach to the biggest US military operation since the 2003 Iraq war.
Shifting messages, various internal viewpoints
The behind-the-scenes maneuvering underscores the high stakes Trump, who returned to office last year promising to avoid “stupid” military interventions, faces nearly two weeks after plunging the nation into a war that has rattled global financial markets and disrupted the international oil trade.
The jockeying for Trump’s ear is a feature of his presidency, but this time the consequences are a matter of war and peace in one of the world’s most volatile and economically critical regions.
Shifting from the sweeping goals he framed in launching the war on February 28, Trump in recent days has emphasized that he views the conflict as a limited campaign whose objectives have mostly been met.
But the message remains unclear to many, including the energy markets, which have lurched in both directions in response to Trump’s statements.
He told a campaign-style rally in Kentucky on Wednesday that “we won” the war, then abruptly pivoted: “We don’t want to leave early, do we? We’ve got to finish the job.”
Economic advisers and officials, including from the Treasury Department and the National Economic Council, have warned Trump that an oil shock and rising gasoline prices could quickly erode domestic support for the war, said the adviser and two others close to the deliberations, speaking on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal discussions.
Political advisers, including Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and deputy chief James Blair, are making similar arguments, focusing on the political fallout from higher gas prices and urging Trump to define victory narrowly and signal the operation is limited and nearly finished, the sources said.
Pushing in the other direction are hawkish voices urging Trump to sustain military pressure on Iran, including Republican lawmakers such as US Senators Lindsey Graham and Tom Cotton, and media commentators such as Mark Levin, according to people familiar with the matter.
They argue the US must prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and respond forcefully to attacks on American troops and shipping.
A third force comes from Trump’s populist base and figures such as strategist Steve Bannon and right-wing television personality Tucker Carlson, who have been pressing him and his top aides to avoid getting dragged into another prolonged Middle East conflict.
“He is allowing the hawks to believe the campaign continues, wants markets to believe the war might end soon and his base to believe escalation will be limited,” the Trump adviser said.
Asked for comment, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement: “This story is based on gossip and speculation from anonymous sources who aren’t even in the room for any discussions with President Trump.
“The President is known for being a good listener and seeking the opinions of many people, but ultimately everyone knows he’s the final decision maker and his own best messenger,” she said. “The President’s entire team is focused on ensuring the objectives of Operation Epic Fury are fully achieved.”
Other people named for their roles in the deliberations did not immediately respond to Reuters’ questions.
Looking for an exit
In taking America to war, Trump offered little explanation, and the administration’s stated war aims have ranged from thwarting an imminent attack by Iran to crippling its nuclear program to replacing its government.
As he seeks an exit from an unpopular conflict, Trump is trying to juggle competing narratives that some critics say have complicated an already difficult situation, with Iran defiant despite the devastating US-Israeli air assault.
Top political aides and economic advisers, whose warnings before the war of the potential economic shock were largely ignored, appear to have played a major role in pushing Trump’s efforts this week to reassure skittish markets and contain rising oil and gas prices.
His public shift to downplaying the war’s impact, describing it as a “short-term excursion,” and his insistence that gas price hikes would be short-lived appeared aimed at calming fears of an open-ended conflict.
Some top aides have advised him to work toward a conclusion to the conflict that he can call a triumph, at least militarily, the sources said, even if much of the Iranian leadership survives, along with remnants of a nuclear program that the campaign was meant to target.
Wave after wave of US and Israeli air strikes have killed a number of top Iranian leaders among some 2,000 people overall – some as far away as Lebanon – devastated its ballistic missile arsenal, sunk much of its navy and degraded its ability to support armed proxies around the Middle East.
But the military achievements have been seriously undercut by Iran’s stepped-up attacks on oil tankers and transport facilities in the Gulf, driving up oil prices.
Trump has said he will decide when to end the campaign. He and his aides say they are far ahead of the four- to six-week timeframe Trump initially announced.
The shifting reasons for launching the conflict, which has spilled over into more than half a dozen other countries, have only made it more difficult to predict what comes next.
For their part, Iran’s rulers will claim victory, analysts say, for simply surviving the US-Israeli onslaught, especially after demonstrating their ability to fight back and inflict damage on Israel, the US and its allies.
Venezuela miscalculation
Critical to the war’s final trajectory will be the Strait of Hormuz. A fifth of the world’s oil shipments, which normally traverses the narrow waterway, has come to a near-standstill. Iran in recent days has struck tankers in Iraqi waters and other ships near the strait, and the new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has vowed to keep it shut.
If Iran’s stranglehold on the waterway pushes US gas prices high enough, that could increase political pressure on Trump to end the military campaign to help his Republican Party, which is defending narrow majorities in Congress in November’s midterm elections.
Trump has recently refrained from pushing the idea that the war seeks to topple the government in Tehran. US intelligence indicates that Iran’s leadership is not at risk of collapse anytime soon, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
At least some of the confusion over the war’s trajectory appears rooted in the quick US military success in Venezuela.
Since the start of the war, some aides have struggled to convince Trump that the Iran campaign was unlikely to unfold in the same way as the January 3 Venezuela raid that captured President Nicolas Maduro, according to another source familiar with the administration’s thinking.
That operation opened the way for Trump to coerce former Maduro loyalists into giving him considerable sway over the country’s vast oil reserves – without requiring extended US military action.
Iran, by contrast, has proved a much tougher, better-armed foe with an entrenched clerical and security establishment.
Experts have rejected claims by Trump aides that Iran had been within weeks of being able to produce a nuclear weapon, despite the president’s insistence in June that US-Israeli bombing had “obliterated” its nuclear program.
Most of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium is believed to have been buried by the June strikes, meaning the material potentially could be retrieved and purified to bomb grade. Iran has always denied seeking nuclear weapons.
If the war drags on, American casualties mount and the economic costs multiply, some analysts say it could erode backing from Trump’s political base. But despite criticism from some supporters opposed to military interventions, members of his “Make America Great Again” movement have so far largely stayed with him on Iran.
“The MAGA base is going to give the president wiggle room,” said Republican strategist Ford O’Connell.
