Pope Leo XIV said that St. Peter was tasked with “loving more,” and “giving his life for his flock,” as he celebrated his inauguration Mass Sunday in St. Peter’s Square.
The Petrine ministry is “always and only a question of loving as Jesus did,” the pontiff said.
The first U.S.-born pope reflected at the May 18 Mass on the presence of Jesus among his apostles after the Resurrection — and briefly on the conclave which elected him.
He said that at the papal conclave, “the Holy Spirit was able to bring us into harmony,” the pope said. “I was chosen without any merit of my own. And now, with fear and trembling, I come to you as a brother, who desires to be a servant of your faith and your joy.”
He went on to stress that “love and unity” were the two dimensions of St. Peter’s ministry, as Jesus “called Peter and the other first disciples to be like him: Fishers of men.”
“It is up to them to carry on this mission — to cast out their notes again and again. To bring the hope of the Gospel into the world.”
“How can Peter carry out this task?” the pope asked. “The Gospel tells us that it’s only possible because his own life was touched by the infinite and unconditional love of God, even in the hour of his failure and denial.”
Leo XIV, previously known as Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, became the 267th pope of the Catholic Church the moment he accepted his May 8 election in the Sistine Chapel. But the inauguration Mass 10 days later marked the official launch of his pontificate. The Mass was preceded by the new pontiff’s first tour of St. Peter’s Square in a popemobile, taking him past tens of thousands of pilgrims to shouts of “Viva il Papa!”
The Mass for the Beginning of the Petrine Ministry of the Bishop of Rome, as it is formally known, started at 10 a.m. local time with Leo XIV descending to the tomb of St. Peter the Apostle, the first pope, beneath the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica, accompanied by the Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Churches as a choir sang the Latin hymn “Tu es Petrus” (“You are Peter.)
After pausing for prayer, the pope took a thurible and censed the trophaeum, a memorial marking the burial place of the apostle martyred in Rome around 64 AD. As he did so, two deacons took the pope’s pallium, fisherman’s ring, and Book of the Gospels and carried them together in procession.
The pallium — a strip of pure wool, embroidered with six black crosses and held in place by three pins — is worn by Bishops of Rome as a symbol of their pastoral responsibility for Catholics worldwide.
As Pope Benedict XVI explained as his inauguration Mass in 2005, it is “an image of the yoke of Christ, which the Bishop of this City, the Servant of the Servants of God, takes upon his shoulders,” with the lambswool representing “the lost, sick or weak sheep which the shepherd places on his shoulders and carries to the waters of life.”
The fisherman’s ring, a gold signet (seal) ring depicting St. Peter on the outside with Leo XIV’s name and coat of arms inside, is the second symbol used to express the inauguration of a pope’s ministry.
In his 2005 homily, Pope Benedict linked the ring to Jesus’ call to St. Peter to be a “fisher of men,” following his Resurrection and the miraculous catch of 153 fish at the Sea of Galilee.
After ascending to St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Leo joined the procession leading into a sunlit St. Peter’s Square, which included cardinals wearing white damask miters, as well as scores of bishops with simple white miters. Rows of priests sat in a reserved area of the square wearing white stoles, along with a large number of deacons.
A tapestry portraying the miraculous catch of fish hung from the central gate of St. Peter’s Basilica. Near the altar stood the image of Our Lady of Good Counsel from the Italian Marian shrine of Genazzano, which Pope Leo visited May 10, on his first trip outside of Rome.
The inauguration Mass was attended by more than 150 official delegations, including dozens of world leaders, amid tight security. The U.S. was represented by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Given Pope Leo’s dual U.S. and Peruvian citizenship, the U.S. delegation was seated in the front row along with the Peruvian delegation, led by President Dina Boluarte. Other delegations were seated in alphabetic order according to their country names in French, the traditional language of diplomacy.
Britain’s King Charles III was represented by his youngest brother, Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh. Representing Spain were King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, who was dressed in white, a privilege granted to a handful of female royals. Heads of state present included Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, Argentina’s President Javier Milei, and Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu. Russia was represented by its culture minister Olga Lyubimova. Other government representatives included Canada’s recently elected Prime Minister Mark Carney, Germany’s new Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Australia’s re-elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Christian leaders attending included Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of the world’s Eastern Orthodox Christians. He is expected to have a private meeting with the pope Monday, where they are likely to discuss plans for a joint commemoration of the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea at the site of the first ecumenical council in modern-day Turkey.
Representatives of the Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain faiths were also present.
The long entrance procession into St. Peter’s Square was accompanied by the singing of the “Laudes Regiae,” an ancient Latin hymn celebrating Christ’s triumph and invoking an extensive litany of saints.
When Pope Leo reached the altar on the parvis in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, he made the Sign of the Cross before blessing and sprinkling water, as is customary on Sundays in the Easter season.
After the Gloria and Collect, the first reading was in Spanish, reflecting Pope Leo’s missionary work and episcopal ministry in Peru’s Chiclayo diocese. The reading, from Acts 4:8-12, described St. Peter’s proclamation of faith in Jesus before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish supreme council and tribunal under Roman rule.
The responsorial psalm was sung in Italian, followed by a second reading, 1 Peter 5:1-5, 10-11, in Leo XIV’s mother tongue of English, proclaimed by an Indiana former parishioner of the new pope. The reading outlined the qualities needed in the shepherds of God’s flock.
The Gospel reading, in Latin, was John 21:15-19, in which the Risen Christ asks Peter to “tend my sheep.” It was chanted in both Latin and Greek, with the Latin chanted by Deacon Nicholas Monnin from the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana.
The readings were followed by the imposition of the pallium on the pope’s shoulders by the senior cardinal-deacon, Frenchman Cardinal Dominique Mamberti.
Cardinal Dominique Mamberti confers the pallium upon Pope Leo XIV. Credit: Edgar Beltran/Pillar Media
Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, from the order of cardinal-priests, recited a prayer asking for God’s blessing on the new pope.
This was followed by the bestowal of the fisherman’s ring by Filipino cardinal-bishop Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization’s Section for the First Evangelization and New Particular Churches.
The pope silently blessed the assembly with the Book of the Gospels while the words “Many years to you, Lord” (“Ad multos annos, Domine”) were proclaimed in Greek. The pope looked visibly moved nearly to tears as the choir sang, and spontaneous applause broke out in St. Peter’s Square.
Leo XIV then received 12 representatives of the Church from around the world, including clerics, religious, a married couple, and young people — a symbolic gesture of filial obedience.
After the choir sang “Tu es Petrus,” Pope Leo began his homily.
“The ministry of Peter is distinguished precisely” by “self-sacrificing love, because the Church of Rome presides in charity and its true authority is the charity of Christ,” the pope said.
Indicating his own intended leadership style, the pontiff said that, “St. Peter must shepherd the flock without ever yielding to the temptation of being an autocrat, lording it over those entrusted to him.”
“On the contrary, he is called to serve the faith of his brothers and sisters, and to walk alongside them, for all of us are ‘living stones,’ called through our baptism to build God’s house in fraternal communion, in the harmony of the Spirit, in the coexistence of diversity.”
The pope called the Church to be a sign of “unity and communion,” as a leaven in a world in need of the Gospel.
“We want to say to the world with humility and joy: Look to Christ! Come closer to Jesus,” the pope said. Welcome his word that enlightens and consoles! Listen to his offer of love and become his one family: in the one Christ, we are one.”
“This is the missionary spirit that must animate us,” the pope continued. “The heart of the Gospel is the love of God that makes us brothers and sisters.”
“This is the hour for love!”
Citing Pope Leo XIII, the pope asked: “If this love were to prevail in the world, would not every conflict cease and never return?”
Standing in the square where his predecessor’s funeral Mass took place April 26, Pope Leo recalled Pope Francis’s ministry.
He recalled that “on Easter Sunday, we received[Francis’] final blessing and, in the light of the resurrection, we experienced the days that followed in the certainty that the Lord never abandons his people, but gathers them when they are scattered and guards them ‘as a shepherd guards his flock.’”
“Together, as one people, as brothers and sisters, let us walk towards God and love one another,” the pontiff concluded his homily, as he spoke against the backdrop of St. Peter’s Basilica.
The 69-year-old pope ended his homily with a prolonged moment of silence, after which the assembly recited the Creed in Latin, which was followed by the Prayers of the Faithful in Portuguese, French, Arabic, Polish, and Chinese, reflecting the Church’s universality.
During the Offertory, the choir chanted “Tu es pastor ovium” (“You are the Shepherd of the sheep”), a hymn highlighting the authority given by Christ to Peter.
Pope Leo XIV then prayed the First Eucharistic Prayer (Roman Canon), the longest of the four Eucharistic Prayers.
After the distribution of Holy Communion, the pope offered a brief address, thanking the pilgrims who attended the Mass “from Rome and from all parts of the world,” recognizing especially those who had come to Rome for the Church’s Jubilee Year.
“Dear brothers and sisters I thank you, that you may maintain living the Christian faith,” he said.
“We can never forget our brothers and sisters who suffer because of war,” he said, noting especially conflicts in Myanmar and Ukraine. As the Mass concluded, the Vatican announced to the press that Leo had met before the Mass with Peruvian President Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra, and was scheduled to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president.
Pope Leo then called for the intercession of Our Lady of Good Counsel, especially that “we might be witnesses of Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.”
The pope’s remarks were followed by the singing of the Regina Caeli, the Marian prayer recited during the Easter Season.
Leo then offered a solemn blessing, praying that God would bless his Church.
After the blessing, he went into the basilica to greet the members of the College of Cardinals, and the heads of the 150 official delegations.
In the days following the inauguration Mass, Pope Leo will take possession of Rome’s three other papal basilicas.
On Tuesday, May 20, he will visit the tomb of St. Paul the Apostle at the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls.
On Sunday, May 25, he will celebrate Mass and be formally installed at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome.
He will also visit the Basilica of St. Mary Major, where his predecessor Pope Francis is buried, and venerate the icon of the Mary Salus Populi Romani (Protectress of the Roman People).
