The Vatican has announced that the inauguration Mass for Pope Leo XIV, the newly elected head of the Roman Catholic Church, will be held on Sunday, May 18, in St. Peter’s Square.
World leaders are expected to attend the ceremony, which comes ten days after Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected as the first American pope, now spiritual leader to the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
According to the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV will meet with members of the press on Monday, followed by an audience with diplomats accredited to the Holy See on Friday.
His first general audience will take place on Wednesday, May 21, and he will meet with senior Vatican officials, the Roman Curia, on May 24.
Prevost’s election was confirmed on Thursday, after white smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel chimney following four rounds of voting in the papal conclave.
