VIDEO: Tinubu Meets Pope Leo XIV After Inaugural Mass In Rome

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 Hifox News, 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.

READ ALSO: Nigerian Worshippers Hope Pope Leo Continues Francis’s Work

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.