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Pope Leo XIV will celebrate his inaugural mass on Sunday morning around 10 a.m. (that’s 4 a.m. Eastern Time). Tens of thousands of people are expected to gather in St. Peter’s Square for the „Holy Mass for the Beginning of the Pontificate.“ The pontiff will make an appearance for their sake before returning to St. Peter’s Basilica to take part in the ceremony, which will include him receiving the Petrine Pallium and Fisherman’s Ring, delivering a homily, and saying a prayer called the Regina Caeli.
Afterwards, the Vatican says that Pope Leo will greet the dignitaries in attendance. Among them will be a delegation from the United States that includes Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his wife, Jeanette. Seeing as how this is the first pope from the U.S., I think it’s only fitting. (I will not make any jokes about what happened last time Vance was at the Vatican.)
As you probably already know, there has been much talk about the Pope’s political and social beliefs. Leftists cheered him on for some of his remarks about illegal immigration. Conservatives like that he recently stood up for unborn babies and traditional marriage between a man and a woman. Some of Pope Leo’s initial public remarks were about ending wars and welcoming peace, something I think we can all get behind, and he’s invited Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky to meet at the Vatican to end the war once and for all.
But earlier this week, Secretary Rubio said something that I think we all need to listen to: The Pope is not a political figure.
Rubio, who has been traveling with the president in the Middle East and spent time in Turkey this week meeting with NATO and a delegation from the Ukraine and took a few questions from reporters, and one asked, „Mr.
