Spanish
Vatican City.- Leo XIV inaugurated his magisterium this Sunday with a mass in which the symbols of papal power, the pallium and the Fisherman's Ring, were imposed on him, and in which he delivered a fiery call for unity in the church and peace in a world marked by "too much hatred and prejudice."
The day began with the new pontiff's first ride aboard the popemobile, touring St. Peter's Square and the entire Via della Conciliazione to greet the nearly 200,000 people who came to the Vatican surroundings to attend the ceremony.
You may be interested in: Leonel calls for investigation into emergency management after case of minor who fell into a sewer
Then, he accessed the basilica to pray before the place where, according to tradition, the apostle Peter was buried, under Bernini's great baldachin.
The Pope's Commotion
In that very place, the two symbols of papal power were also placed: the pallium, a white woolen stole placed on the pope's shoulders, like a sheep on its shepherd, and the Fisherman's Ring, which he will wear until his death or resignation.
Leo XIV prayed in silence in this suggestive place and before the symbols that would represent him. Then he processed with his pastoral staff to the square, accompanied by a long line of clerics headed by the deacons who raised the Gospel.
The Mass for the beginning of Leo XVI's Petrine ministry was celebrated in the square, at the foot of the Vatican basilica, before thousands of faithful and authorities and representatives from 150 countries and organizations.
With them all as witnesses, the new pope received the pallium on his shoulders, decorated with six black silk crosses and fastened with three pins that evoke the nails of Christ.
Then, Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle placed the Fisherman's Ring, made of gold and representing Saint Peter with the nets, as the fisherman of faith, on his right hand.
The Kings of Spain, before Leo XIV
The era of Leo XIV had begun and the new pontiff looked at his hand visibly moved, almost holding back tears, while a resounding applause rose from the square.
Among the authorities and dignitaries who attended this historic moment were the King and Queen of Spain, Felipe VI and Doña Letizia, dressed strictly in white as tradition dictates for European Catholic queens.
The first rows of the mass were reserved for the new pope's two countries: his native country, the United States, with the presence of Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio; and his chosen country, Peru, where he was a missionary and bishop for a large part of his life and from which President Dina Boluarte arrived.
In the Vatican square, gestures of détente were also seen, such as a handshake between Vance and the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, after the clash that both embodied in February with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
For peace and unity
Leo XIV then gave his homily in which he acknowledged the heavy weight of the mission entrusted to him on May 8, after the conclave that elected him successor to Francis and head of a church with around 1.4 billion faithful worldwide.
"I was chosen without having any merit and, with fear and trepidation, I come to you as a brother," he confessed.
The new pope proposed a united church in which its leader "must never yield to the temptation of being a solitary leader" and that acts as a "leaven for a reconciled world", especially when, he warned, the world is experiencing "too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, fear of the different, by an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth's resources and marginalizes the poorest".
Faced with this context, his idea of "building a new world where peace reigns" resonated strongly in the square.
Once the Mass was over, the American pontiff presided over the recitation of the Regina Coeli, which replaces the Angelus during the Easter season, remembering Francis and thanking the delegations present and the confraternities among the public who came for the Jubilee.
But he also remembered the conflicts of today: Leo XIV denounced that in the Gaza Strip "children, families and surviving elderly people are starving", words heard 'in situ' by the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog.
As well as "tormented" Ukraine which, he highlighted, "finally awaits negotiations for a just and lasting peace", following the open talks in Istanbul between Moscow and Kyiv.
Then came the moment of the kiss of the hand, inside the basilica, with Prevost receiving the heads of delegations one by one for a greeting, brief talks and a gesture that broke the rigid Vatican protocol: a hug with his older brother Louis for almost an hour and twenty minutes.
