President Bola Tinubu on Sunday met with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican, Rome.
The meeting comes shortly after Leo (formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost) was installed as the Bishop of Rome and the 267th leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
According to a video obtained by Channels Television, the Nigerian President shook hands with the Pope and had a brief conversation with him before moving away.
The US pontiff shook hands with several world leaders in St Peter’s Square after the inauguration mass on Sunday.
Other world leaders who shook hands with the Pope included US Vice President J.D Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, among others.
Tinubu had joined other world leaders in Rome, Italy on Sunday for the installation mass marking the beginning of the Pontificate of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV.
At the installation mass, Pope Leo XIV set the tone for his papacy with a call to stop exploiting nature and marginalising the poor.
After spending two decades as a missionary in Peru, the 69-year-old is unknown to many Catholics, but during the past week he has offered glimpses of the kind of leader he will be.
In meetings with journalists, clergy and diplomats, he repeatedly called for peace in a world full of conflicts and defended social justice.
He also emphasised traditional Catholic values, including the importance of a family built around a “stable union of a man and a woman”, and defended the rights of the unborn.
Leo’s elevation has sparked huge enthusiasm in the United States, which is being represented on Sunday by Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also a Catholic.
Before becoming pope, the new pontiff on his personal X account reposted criticism of President Donald Trump’s administration over its approach to migration and also pilloried Vance, but the account is no longer accessible.
Fisherman’s ring
Leo XIV was elected the 267th pope on May 8 after a secret conclave vote of cardinals that lasted less than 24 hours.
Succeeding the charismatic but impulsive Francis, he takes over a Church still battling the fallout of the clerical child abuse scandal, and trying to adapt to the modern world.
Modernity is not the concern on Sunday, however.
Although no pope has been crowned during an inauguration mass since Paul VI in 1963, the event is still a grand affair steeped in tradition.
Leo will begin by visiting the tomb of Saint Peter — who in the Christian tradition was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, and the first pope — located under the altar of the basilica that bears his name.
Leo will then receive the pontifical emblems — the pallium, a strip of cloth worn over the chasuble, his robe and the fisherman’s ring, which is forged anew for each pope and which he will wear on his finger until he dies, when it will be destroyed.
With other cardinals and clergy, the pope will walk in procession into St Peter’s Square, where large screens will display the proceedings to the crowds.
At the end of the ceremony, the pope will greet the delegations of heads of state, though it is not clear if any of them will also be accorded a one-to-one private audience. (Channels TV)
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