Tinubu turns in Rome for the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV

Pope Leo XIV invites Tinubu to his inauguration on Sunday

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will start Abuja for Rome, the capital of Italy, on Saturday at the invitation of Pope Leo XIV.

Accompanied by the best Catholic leaders, President Tinubu will participate in a solemn mass that will mark the beginning of the pontificate of his holiness Pope Leo XIV, the 267th bishop of Rome and the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

In the papal invitation sent by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Pope Leo XIV underlined the need for the physical presence of President Tinubu “in this moment of particular importance for the Catholic Church and the world suffering from many tensions and conflicts.

Pope Leo further underlined: “Your great nation is particularly dear to me while I was working in the apostolic nunnation in Lagos in the 1980s”.

The entourage of President Tinubu includes the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the White Ambassador Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Archbishop of Owerri and president of the Nigeria Conference of the Catholic Bishops, the Arciusop Lucius Ugorji, the Archbishop Ignazio Kaigama of Abuja and Alfred Martins of Lagos.

The Catholic bishop of the diocese of Sokoto, Mathew Hassan Kukah, is also in the president’s entourage.

Pope Leo XIV, former Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, will be formally installed in the office enhanced on Sunday 18 May, in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.

The conclave of the cardinals elected him 27 days after his predecessor, Pope Francis, died on April 21.

President Tinubu will return to Abuja on Tuesday 20 May 2025.