Rome (Italy). On 18 May 2025, about 200 thousand of the faithful from all over the world, from the early morning hours, gathered in St. Peter’s Square to celebrate a historic event: the beginning of the Petrine ministry of the 267th Pontiff Leo XIV, elected by the Conclave on 8 May.
An hour before the Celebration, the first “embrace of the crowd” – also colored by the mantles of the Confraternities arrived in Rome for their Jubilee – came with the Pope’s passage on the Popemobile in the Piazza and on Via della Conciliazione, receiving support and affection for this immense mandate. In the square were present various Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, members of the Salesian Family, and young people from the Italian Council of the Salesian Youth Movement.
The rite began inside the Basilica, with the descent of the new Roman Pontiff, accompanied by the Patriarchs of the Eastern Churches, to the Tomb of Saint Peter, where he paused in prayer, to underline the close bond of the Bishop of Rome with the Apostle Peter. He then incensed the Apostolic “Trophæum”, while the deacons took the pastoral Pallium, the Ring of the Fisherman, and the Book of the Gospels, symbols of the Pontificate, to carry them together in the procession that then set off towards the altar on the churchyard of the Basilica, the singing Laudes Regiæ, according to an almost imperial tradition, to invoke the intercession of the Pontiffs, martyrs, and saints of the Church.
As for a Head of State, waiting for him on the square were 150 delegations from all over the world – including the President of the Italian Republic and the President of the Council, the President of the Republic of Peru, the Vice President and the Secretary of State of the United States of America, the Presidents of Ukraine and Israel, the sovereigns of Spain and Belgium, the Prince of Monaco – as well as representatives of the Jewish community and the main religions, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and others.
The liturgy continued with the blessing of water, sign of renewal and remembrance of Baptism, and the sprinkling of the faithful by the Holy Father. The Liturgy of the Word, with the Gospel sung first in Latin and then in Greek, was followed by the most touching moment of the entire Celebration; the imposition of the Pallium, wrapped in sheep’s wool, to recall the Good Shepherd, and the delivery of the Fisherman’s Ring, the seal on which is depicted the image of Saint Peter with the keys and the net, by three Cardinals of the three Orders – Deacons, Priests, and Bishops – and from different continents, to a Pontiff visibly moved. He was then offered obedience by 12 representatives of the People of God from various parts of the world, including Sister Oonah O’Shea, newly elected President of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), and Father Arturo Sosa, President of the Union of Superior General (USG), a married couple, and two young people.
“I have been chosen without any merit and, with fear and trembling. I come to you as a brother who wants to be a servant of your faith and your joy, walking with you on the way of God’s love, who wants us all united in one family,” he declared later in the homily. He recalled the particularly intense time that preceded this moment, with the death of Pope Francis – lived in the Easter certainty “that the Lord never abandons his people” – and the experience of the Conclave, where the Cardinals felt accompanied by the prayer of the faithful and supported by the Holy Spirit, who “has been able to tune the different musical instruments, making the strings of our heart vibrate in a single melody.”
“Love and unity” are the other words that echoed, “the two dimensions of the mission entrusted to Peter by Jesus,” depicted in the tapestry of the miraculous catch of fish behind the Pope, in which the disciple is called to “to carry out this mission, to throw the net again and again in order to immerse into the waters of the world the hope of the Gospel, to navigate in the sea of life so that all can find themselves in the embrace of God.”
After commenting on the Gospel in which Jesus asks Peter for an oblative love and entrusts to him “the task of ‘loving more’ and giving his life for the flock,” without ever giving into “the temptation of being a solitary leader or a chief placed above others, becoming master of the people entrusted to him,” but rather by walking together with the flock, in order “to build the edifice of God in fraternal communion, in the harmony of the Spirit, in the coexistence of differences”, he expressed a first great desire, which he not only called “his” but “ours”: “a united Church, a sign of unity and communion, that becomes leaven for a reconciled world.
In our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, fear of the different, an economic paradigm that exploits the resources of the earth and marginalizes the poorest. And we want to be, within this dough, a little leaven of unity, communion, fraternity. We want to say to the world, with humility and joy: look to Christ! Draw near to Him! Accept His Word that illuminates and comforts! Listen to His proposal of love to become His one family: in the one Christ we are one.”
This is the motto he chose for his Pontificate – “In Illo uno unum”, from the words of Saint Augustine – with which he outlines a road to walk “together among us but also with the sister Christian Churches, with those who walk other religious paths, with those who cultivate the anxiety of seeking God, with all women and men of good will, to build a new world in which peace reigns.
This is the missionary spiritthat must animate us, without closing ourselves in our small group or feeling superior to the world. We are called to offer to all the love of God, so that unity may be realized, which does not cancel out differences, but values the personal history of each and the social and religious culture of each people.” (homily text)
And at the end, the programmatic synthesis of the Pontificate:
“With the light and strength of the Holy Spirit, let us build a Church founded on the love of God and sign of unity; a missionary Church that opens her arms to the world, proclaims the Word, lets herself be disturbed by history, and becomes a leaven of harmony for humanity. Together, as one people, as brothers and sisters, let us walk towards God and love one another.”
At the end of the Celebration, before Regina Coeli, Pope Leo XIV recalled the brothers and sisters who suffer because of conflicts, in particular children, families, the elderly, imploring the intercession of Mary Mother of Good Counsel, whose image he had venerated at the Shrine of Genazzano, held by the Augustinians, on 10 May, also present during the Celebration in the painting next to the altar:
“As we entrust to Mary the service of the Bishop of Rome, Pastor of the universal Church, from the ‘boat of Peter’ we look to her, the Star of the Sea, Mother of Good Counsel, as a sign of hope. We implore from her intercession, the gift of peace, support and comfort for those who suffer, grace for all of us, to be witnesses of the Risen Lord.”
