The Holy Father addressed a throng of more than 200,000 with a tone of humility and gratitude, conscious of the enormous task the Lord has given him.

The Vatican, which was largely sidelined during the first three years of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has offered to host any peace talks.

An open-topped popemobile carrying Pope Leo XIV drove through St Peter's Square at the Vatican on Sunday morning, ahead of his inaugural mass.

As many as 150,000 people turned out in the Vatican Sunday for Pope Leo XIV's installation mass, and many Chicagoans made the journey to Rome to represent their hometown pope. For a select few, the day was more special than they ever imagined.

The service marks the official start of Leo's papacy just under a month after the death of his predecessor, Pope Francis. The ceremony began with a procession from St. Peter's Basilica — where Leo and other church leaders visited St. Peter's tomb to pray — to St. Peter's Square, where the Inauguration Mass was held.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV affirmed Friday that the family is founded on the “stable union between a man and a woman,” and that the unborn and elderly enjoy dignity as God’s creatures, articulating clear Catholic teaching on marriage and abortion at the start of his pontificate.