PRESIDENT Bola Ahmed Tinubu has arrived in Rome, Italy, for the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV.

The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, made this known in a statement on Saturday, May 17.

He said Tinubu was received at the Mario De Bernardo Military Airport by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, officials from Vatican City, and the Nigerian Embassy after the plane touched down at 6 pm local time.

“President Tinubu is in Rome to honour the new Pope’s invitation, conveyed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State.”

Tinubu will join other world leaders at the solemn mass marking 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.

The installation mass is to take place on Sunday, May 18.

According to Onanuga, the papal invitation underscored the need for Tinubu’s physical presence “at this moment of particular importance for the Catholic Church and the world afflicted by many tensions and conflicts.”

He noted that the Pope in the invitation, said, “Your great nation is particularly dear to me as I worked in the Apostolic Nunciature in Lagos during the 1980s.

Among the President’s entourage includes the Archbishop of Owerri and president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, Lucius Ugorji, Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja, Alfred Martins of Lagos and Mathew Hassan Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese.

The ICIR reported that Pope Leo XIV, the first pontiff to have been born in the United States, succeeded the late Pope Francis, who died on April 21 after a 12-year papacy.

The Roman Catholic Church announced him as the new Pope on Thursday, May 8, 2025.

The announcement came two days after praying and voting, with white smoke rising from the Sistine Chapel chimney, signifying that the 133 cardinal electors had chosen him as the new leader of the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church worldwide.