Pope Leo XVI will be formally installed as pontiff during May 18 Mass, the Vatican says
Pope Leo XVI will be formally installed as pontiff when he holds his inaugural public Mass at St. Peter's Square on May 18, the Vatican said. The first U.S.-born pope, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost, will also preside over his first general audience on May 21.
While Leo held the first Mass of his papacy in the Sistine Chapel on Friday morning, the day after his election, that service was for the cardinals of the Catholic Church and was not open to the public.
During the papal inauguration, a Mass is celebrated before political and religious leaders from around the world. While world leaders are typically invited to attend the Mass for the Beginning of the Pontificate, most nations tend to send official delegations rather than heads of state.
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV concelebrates Mass with the College of Cardinals inside the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican on Friday, May 9, 2025.
Vatican Media via AP
The Mass used to include the papal coronation ceremony, but that portion of the celebration has not been included in the Mass since Pope John Paul I was officially installed as pope in 1978. His predecessor, Pope Paul VI, was the last pope to be crowned or to use a papal tiara.
The papal inauguration now involves the formal bestowal of the pallium, a white woolen band adorned with crosses that's worn with the papal vestments — a symbol of the pope's universal jurisdiction.
On Thursday, Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost, 69, was elected and accepted his role as the next Bishop of Rome, leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics. Prevost, the first pope ever from the United States, chose Leo XIV as his papal name.
During his first homily after being chosen as pope, Leo said he would be a "faithful administrator" of the church and warned against reducing Jesus to "a kind of charismatic leader or superman."
He lamented that there are many settings in the modern world where people favor "technology, money, success, power or pleasure" over Christian faith. "These are contexts where it is not easy to preach the Gospel and bear witness to its truth, where believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied," the new pope said. "Yet, precisely for this reason, they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed. A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society."
contributed to this report.
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