World leaders set to attend Pope Leo’s inaugural Mass

VATICAN CITY: Following is a list of the main world leaders who are expected to attend Pope Leo’s inaugural Mass on Sunday, according to a Vatican statement.

ALBANIA – President Bajram Bega

ARMENIA – President Vahagn Khachaturyan

AUSTRALIA – Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

AUSTRIA – Chancellor Christian Stocker

BELGIUM – King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, Prime Minister Bart De Wever

BRITAIN – Prince Edward

BULGARIA – Prime Minister Rossen Jeliazkov

CANADA – Prime Minister Mark Carney

COLOMBIA – President Gustavo Petro

CROATIA – Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic

ECUADOR – President Daniel Noboa

EUROPEAN UNION – Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

FRANCE – Prime Minister Francois Bayrou

GABON – President Brice Oligui Nguema

GERMANY – Chancellor Friedrich Merz

GEORGIA – President Mikheil Kavelashvili

HUNGARY – President Tamas Sulyok

ITALY – President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni

IRELAND – President Michael D. Higgins

ISRAEL – President Isaac Herzog

LATVIA – Prime Minister Evika Silina

LEBANON – President Joseph Aoun

LITHUANIA – President Gitanas Nauseda

LUXEMBOURG – Prime Minister Luc Frieden

MALTA – Prime Minister Robert Abela

MONACO – Prince Albert and his wife Princess Charlene

MOROCCO – Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch

NETHERLANDS – Queen Maxima, Prime Minister Dick Schoof

NIGERIA – President Bola Tinubu

PARAGUAY – President Santiago Pena

PERU – President Dina Boluarte

POLAND – President Andrzej Duda

PORTUGAL – President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

SERBIA – Prime Minister Djuro Macut

SLOVENIA – Prime Minister Robert Golob

SLOVAKIA – President Peter Pellegrini

SPAIN – King Felipe and Queen Letizia

SWITZERLAND – President Karin Keller-Sutter

TOGO – President Faure Gnassingbe

UKRAINE – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy

UNITED STATES – Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio

It may be noted that Robert Francis Prevost became the first pope from the United States on Thursday (May 8), picking the papal name Leo XIV after cardinals from around the world elected him leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

Tens of thousands of people packed in St Peter’s Square cheered as Prevost appeared on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, waving with both hands, smiling and bowing.

“Peace by with you,” he told the crowds.

White smoke from the Sistine Chapel had billowed into the sky on the cardinals’ second day of voting to announce his election in a secret conclave, while the bells of St Peter’s Basilica and churches across Rome rang out.

Later in the day (Thursday, May 8), the Pope held his first meeting with all the cardinals since his election as pontiff, where Leo also asked the senior clerics to renew their commitment to major Church reforms enacted by the landmark Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

Pope Leo XIV says choice of name reflects social commitment

On Saturday (May 10), Pope Leo XIV signalled he would continue with the vision and reforms of Pope Francis, telling the world’s Catholic cardinals the late pontiff left a “precious legacy” that must carry on.

Leo said Francis, who died on April 21, broadly had a vision of opening the staid 1.4-billion-member Church to the modern world, had left an “example of complete dedication to service.”

“Let us take up this precious legacy and continue on the journey,” the new pope told the cardinals.