Pope Leo XIV Takes 1st Popemobile Ride Ahead Of Inauguration

Pope Leo XIV has taken his first Popemobile ride through St Peter’s Square ahead of his inauguration, waving from the back of the open-back truck to the crowd waving flags and cheering “Viva il Papa!”

The bells of St Peter’s Basilica tolled as the open-topped vehicle looped slowly through the square on Sunday. The crowd cheered and plenty of Peruvian, American and Holy See flags mixed in with flags of other nations and banners.

It was here that Pope Francis took his last Popemobile ride on Easter Sunday, and it was on the back of a modified Popemobile that Francis’ casket was brought across Rome last month to its final resting place.

Leo, history’s first American pope, is now being installed in a formal ceremony attended by presidents, patriarchs and princes.

After the festive public tour in the square, the pontiff goes to the basilica to begin the solemn ceremony to inaugurate his ministry in a series of rites that emphasised the service that he’s called to offer to lead the Catholic Church.

The pope prays first at the tomb of St Peter — considered to be the first pope — under the basilica’s main altar and then processes out to St Peter’s Square 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.

US Vice-President JD Vance — a Catholic convert who tangled with Francis over the Trump administration’s mass migrant deportation plans — is leading the American delegation along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Peruvian President Dina Boluarte is one of around a dozen heads of state attending, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

During the mass, the pope receives two potent symbols of the papacy: the lambswool stole, known as a pallium, and the fisherman’s ring.

The pallium, draped across his shoulders, symbolises the pastor carrying his flock as the pope carries the faithful. The ring, which becomes Leo’s official seal, harks back to Jesus’s 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.

After the homily and at the end of the mass, the pope offers a final blessing and enters the basilica to greet the heads of the more than 150 official delegations attending.

Earlier, crowds of thousands of faithful followers of the Catholic Church crammed into St Peter’s Square at the Vatican and surrounding streets in Rome for the formal celebration.

The masses began gathering as early as 6:30am, local time, as the sun rose over the Vatican.

Security was expected to be tight within the Vatican for Leo’s inaugural mass, as it was for Francis’s funeral on April 26, which drew an estimated 250,000 people.

Rome authorities planned for another 250,000 visitors to attend the mass on Sunday.

The piazza and main boulevard leading to it, and two nearby piazzas, have been set up with giant television screens, and dozens of portable toilets have been erected in a nearby park.

Sunday’s mass was expected to feature prayers in several languages, in a nod to the global reach of the 1.4-billion member Church, including Latin, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, French, Arabic, Polish, and Chinese.

In the days since his historic election as pontiff, Leo has already sketched out some of his key priorities as pope, emphasising a message of peace.