Around quarter of a million people are expected to pack into St Peter’s Square in Vatican City on Sunday to watch the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV.
The event marks the start of the Pope’s term.
During the ceremony, the new pontiff is given the pallium and the fisherman’s ring as symbols of his new authority.
However, every pope is free to slightly tweak the ceremony to make it more personal.
Vatican watchers say these small details can give us clues about the man chosen to lead 1.4 billion Catholics.
For example, Pope Francis used an open-top jeep during his procession in 2013.
Here he made a conscious choice to abandon the bulletproof casing often favoured by his predecessor and get closer to the crowd.
His decision to stop the car so he could get down to greet babies and the sick was a glimpse of the characteristics which led many to later label him “the pope of the people”.
“That’s not [Leo’s] personality,” says Father Francesco Giordano, a professor of theology at the Catholic University of America in Rome. “Francis was more out there, Leo is more shy and reserved.”
Image: Francis famously stripped away the more grand aspects of the papacy – including at his inauguration in 2013. Pic: Reuters
Father Giordano describes the new pontiff as “warm, attentive and a good listener”.
He sees him as a blend of the previous popes, with charisma and emotional expressiveness like John Paul II, intellectual depth like Benedict XVI, and a focus on social issues like Francis.
Some of Pope Leo’s decisions in the last week seem to reinforce this idea.
Image: Benedict wearing golden robes at his inauguration in 2005. Pic: Reuters
When he was elected, he echoed Benedict in wearing the traditional red mozzetta – a short elbow-length cape – and moving into the Apostolic Palace, but he followed Francis in wearing his own black shoes rather than the traditional red slippers.
In doing the former, he returned to some of the traditions Francis broke with.
During his first speech on the balcony, Pope Leo talked about building bridges and Father Giordano believes he’s the perfect candidate to unite the church, as some conservatives who felt alienated by Francis will be reassured by the return to some of the traditional customs.
Sunday’s inauguration mass is also significant as the pope will give a homily – offering further clues as to the type of man he is.
This is the moment where Leo will outline his concerns for the future and how he will shape the role going forwards, according to Vatican journalist Marco Griego.
“This will be the first manifesto of the papacy where we will see the lines he will draw in the future; the themes – both religious and social,” he explains.
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2:23
Leo’s first Sunday address
Global conflict is one of the issues which may be touched upon.
In multiple statements since his election, Leo has raised concerns about the various wars being fought around the world.
In fact, “peace” was the first word he spoke to the public when he greeted them from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica after being elected last Thursday.
Image: Pope Leo being introduced to the world on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica
War has also been a hot topic in his social media posts.
“War is never inevitable,” he told his 18.6 million followers on X on Wednesday. “Weapons can and must fall silent, for they never solve problems but only intensify them.
“Those who sow peace will endure throughout history, not those who reap victims. Others are not enemies to hate but human beings with whom to speak.”
On the same day he offered “to help enemies meet”, and while a peace summit isn’t going to be hosted on the sidelines of the inauguration, it will bring together hundreds of high-powered delegates from around the world including US vice president JD Vance, US secretary of state Marco Rubio, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The astonishing picture of presidents Zelenskyy and Trump talking at Francis’s funeral shows how these solemn religious ceremonies are also huge global events where leaders meet on neutral ground.
Image: The two presidents met at Francis’s funeral for the first time since their White Office bust-up. Pic: AP
“From a geopolitical perspective, being there is a display of power for the political leaders,” says Marco Griego. “Also, it’s a chance to make links or hold informal discussions, so it’s also a very important diplomatic meeting.”
It’s an opportunity some seem keen to make the most of. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s team confirmed he will be at the mass and said while in Rome, he’s hoping to meet other international leaders to discuss deepening trade, commerce, and cultural ties.
And as part of the inauguration event, pontiffs usually meet various delegations.
Image: JD Vance – who converted to Catholicism in 2019 – met Francis the day before he died. Pic: Reuters
Vatican secretary of state Pietro Parolin told journalists a face-to-face meeting between the Pope and the US vice president on the sidelines of Leo’s inauguration on Sunday is a possibility – while stressing “the problem is that there are so many delegations, the timing is very tight and so it will be a matter of seeing if there is space”.
In 2013, Francis spent around an hour speaking to leaders after the mass and once again, Vatican watchers will be carefully analysing the interactions.
Before he became Pope Leo XIV, the then Cardinal Robert Prevost reposted articles which criticised Mr Vance and Mr Trump’s stance on immigration.
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1:01
Americans react to getting a pope from the US
In 2023, following violent anti-government protests in Peru that resulted in 49 deaths, he expressed “much sorrow and much pain” to Peruvian media.
He also urged Peru’s then president Alberto Fujimori to “personally ask forgiveness for the great injustices that were committed and for which he was prosecuted” in a 2017 public statement.
However, Pope Leo’s supporters say he is a natural diplomat, who is considered and clear when he speaks – and will avoid any public fallout on such an important day.
Instead, Sunday’s inauguration is a chance for Pope Leo to set his agenda and build his relationships with both the public and those in power.
There is a loud boom, the noise of an explosion, followed by the rat-a-tat of automatic gunfire.
Another explosion, more distant. A sign on the wall warns people against snipers. And all around us is the rubble of destruction.
Welcome to Tel al-Hawa, once one of the most affluent suburbs of Gaza City. Now wrecked, uninhabitable and destroyed.
Like so much of Gaza – and like all the places we drove through to get here – it is a wasteland. Buildings reduced to rubble, with a layer of dust covering everything.
The only people you see are Israeli soldiers.
Throughout my day in Gaza, I didn’t see a single Gazan.
Partly that’s because we were there with the Israeli military, who controlled all our movements. Partly it’s because places like this have been so completely wrecked that everyone has fled.
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I came here on Friday afternoon, along with journalists from a variety of media outlets from around the world.
Because here, amid the dust and debris, everything is bleak and threatening. Everywhere you look there is devastation. The filaments of war are everywhere.
The soundscape is military. There are the roars of explosions, bursts of gunfire, the buzz of drones, the clatter of troops crunching through rubble and the roar of the engines that power tanks and armoured personnel carriers (APCs).
But every now and then there is silence. No birdsong, no gentle chatter. Nothing. It is unsettling.
Image: IDF soldiers escort our correspondent throughout the city
The proof that people ever lived here is strewn around, as if a plane has crashed. There are scraps of everyday life – a milk carton, a phone cable, a shoe. A red toy car.
And curiously, amid all this horror, there is a bouquet of red roses. They are artificial, of course, but they lie in the street, dusty and forgotten. What were they for? A party, a wedding? Or just to brighten up a home that has now been blown away.
Booby traps, snipers on roofs
We spoke to Israeli military officials, who told us they had only recently taken control of this area.
The picture they paint of Hamas fighters is that of a depleted fighting force, reduced to maybe 2,000 people, including young and inexperienced conscripts.
Their tactics are those of a guerrilla force – snipers on roofs, booby traps, improvised explosive devices.
“But it can work. We had a soldier killed very near here a couple of weeks ago. And Hamas – they are brave,” he says.
“It is hard for us to have fought for two years, but it is harder for Hamas than us. We are strong enough to finish this war, bring the hostages back, eliminate Hamas and ensure 7 October can never happen again.”
The military has occupied a building that was once either a large house or perhaps a series of apartments. Some of the rooms are simply forgotten, others are used by the IDF for offices, meals or meetings.
At the top of the building is a room with a large picture window. It looks out towards the Jordanian Hospital – the only building here, and I think the only building I saw throughout my visit that is unscathed.
Image: The view of Gaza City from inside an armoured personnel carrier
The soldiers show us drone footage from inside the hospital campus, revealing a tunnel opening. Twenty metres below the ground, they say, was a Hamas workshop for designing and building missiles and rockets.
“It’s very significant,” one of the soldiers tells me, his face obscured by a balaclava. “The weapons manufactured here are being fired at our civilians. To find it here, under the compound with the hospital, shows how Hamas is using civilians to hide behind.
“We cannot attack that,” – he points at the hospital – “we don’t want to hurt the people there. It’s very significant to us as Israelis and also to the citizens of Gaza, who are being used by Hamas.”
An IDF official told me the hospital had also been used to “accommodate” between 50 and 80 Hamas fighters, and said Jordanian Hospital officials “definitely knew” about these people.
Image: The destroyed skyline and the hospital
We later put these allegations to a Jordanian official source, who described the hospital’s work as “purely a humanitarian mission” that “has been providing treatment for tens of thousands of Gazans since 2009”.
“Jordan has no knowledge of the presence of tunnels under the location of the Tel al-Hawa hospital. Gaza is riddled with tunnels.
“There was no access into the hospital from any underground tunnels. Over its 16 years of operation, no fighters were present within the hospital’s premises.”
There are many stories of Israeli reserve soldiers saying they are both weary and wary, reluctant to sign up for another tour of duty.
Looking out over the hellish landscape of this shattered town, I could understand why some would think twice before rushing back.
Yet Richard Hecht did. Formerly the spokesperson for the IDF, Hecht, whose family moved from Glasgow to Israel when he was a boy, had been called at 11pm the previous evening and asked to accompany us.
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We talked, with dust billowing around us at a military compound on the outskirts of Gaza City.
“I hope this war comes to an end, and it would stop in a matter of moments if Hamas returned our hostages,” he told me.
“But the IDF is very determined – we want our hostages back. We are doing everything we can because we have to fight Hamas. What alternative do we have? We need to obliterate this group.”
Image: Adam Parsons sees first hand the destruction around Gaza City
I suggest to him Israel’s military action now looks wildly disproportionate, especially bearing in mind they believe Hamas to now have only a couple of thousand fighters.
More than 65,000 people have been killed in Gaza, half of them women and children. And many, including a UN commission, have claimed this is genocide.
Hecht bristles. “That is an atrocious thing to say. Genocide has intent, it entails intent. It is an atrocious accusation and I cannot connect it. We are fighting Hamas. We are not fighting Palestinians.”
We have to leave. This town is regarded as an active conflict zone, and the regular chorus of gunfire and explosions testifies to that.
We clamber back into the APC, crewed by two men in their early 20s. One drives, the other stands up, using a hatch to access a machine gun based on the roof. He beckons me up to see the view.
Around us, a line of military vehicles. A digger comes into view, and then a plume of dust flies up as the APC reverses. I look down and see hundreds of spent casings around the machine gun. I point at them, and he nods slowly.
We drive away. The dust envelopes the vehicles again, and we leave Gaza City behind us.
As we head back towards the border, to the gates that divide a war zone from Israeli towns and kibbutzim, we see a huge plume of smoke rising a mile or two away.
In Gaza, the concept of peace feels almost unthinkable.
At least 30 people have been injured in a Russian drone strike on a Ukrainian railway station, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.
Two trains were hit when Shostka station was targeted on Saturday, the head of Ukraine’s railways, Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, said in a Facebook post.
Three children were among the passengers injured, he said, adding an employee had also been hurt.
Ukraine’s president wrote on X: “A savage Russian drone strike on the railway station in Shostka, Sumy region.
“All emergency services are already on the scene and have begun helping people. All information about the injured is being established.
“So far, we know of at least 30 victims. Preliminary reports indicate that both Ukrzaliznytsia staff and passengers were at the site of the strike.”
Regional governor Oleh Hryhorov said a train heading to Kyiv had been hit and that medics and rescuers were working on the scene.
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Mr Zelenskyy and the governor posted pictures from the scene that show a passenger carriage on fire.
The head of the local district administration, Oksana Tarasiuk, told Ukraine’s public broadcaster that about 30 people were injured by the strike. No fatalities were reported in the immediate aftermath.
Mr Pertsovskyi said the strikes were a “despicable attack aimed at stopping communication with our frontline communities”.
Moscow has stepped up its air strike campaign on Ukraine’s railway infrastructure, hitting it almost every day over the last two months.
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They have also targeted energy infrastructure with a massive bombardment on Ukraine’s gas production facilities earlier this week.
Mr Zelenskyy’s top aide, Andriy Yermak, accused Russia of deliberately targeting the station and train, saying it was carrying out a “war against civilians”.
Overnight into Saturday, Russian drones and missiles pounded Ukraine’s power grid, a Ukrainian energy firm said.
The strike damaged energy facilities near Chernihiv, a northern city west of Shostka that lies close to the Russian border, and sparked blackouts set to affect some 50,000 households, according to regional operator Chernihivoblenergo.
On Friday, Russia carried out what officials have described as the biggest attack on Ukraine’s natural gas facilities since the war started in February 2022.
Russia fired a total of 381 drones and 35 missiles at Ukraine on Friday, according to Ukraine’s air force, in what officials said was an attempt to wreck the Ukrainian power grid ahead of winter.
Hamas has said it agrees to release Israeli hostages, dead and alive, under Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza.
The group also said it wants to engage in negotiations to discuss further details, including handing over “administration of the enclave to a Palestinian body of independent autocrats”.
However, other aspects of the 20-point plan, it said, would require further consultation among Palestinians.
The announcement came just hours after President Trump had set a new deadline of Sunday to respond to his proposals, backed by the Arab nations.
The president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled the plan at the White House on Monday.
Israel agreed to the terms, which include an immediate ceasefire; the release of all hostages; Hamas disarming; a guarantee no one will be forced to leave Gaza; and a governing “peace panel” including Sir Tony Blair.
And on Friday night, a statement from Hamas confirmed “its approval to release all prisoners of the occupation – whether alive or the remains of the deceased – according to the exchange framework included in President Trump’s proposal”.
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Trump’s Sunday deadline threat
The group also said it was ready to engage in negotiations through mediators and that it appreciated “Arab, Islamc and international efforts, as well as the efforts of US President Donald Trump”.
But, Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk told Al Jazeera news the group would not disarm “before the Israeli occupation ends”.
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In a Truth Social post on Friday, Mr Trump said if Hamas did not agree to the peace deal by Sunday evening “all hell” would break out.
Ramping up pressure
He had posted: “An Agreement must be reached with Hamas by Sunday Evening at SIX (6) P.M., Washington, D.C. time. Every Country has signed on! If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas. THERE WILL BE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.”
There has been no official response from the US and Israel to the partial acceptance.
Israel has sought to ramp up pressure on Hamas since ending an earlier ceasefire in March.
It sealed the territory off from food, medicine and other goods for two and a half months and has seized, flattened and largely depopulated large areas of the territory.
Experts determined Gaza City had slid into famine shortly before Israel launched a major offensive aimed at occupying it.
An estimated 400,000 people have fled the city in recent weeks, but hundreds of thousands more have stayed behind.
Most of Hamas’ top leaders in Gaza and thousands of its fighters have already been killed, but it still has influence in areas not controlled by the Israeli military and launches sporadic attacks that have killed and wounded Israeli soldiers.