President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Sunday met with His Holiness, Pope Leo XIV, at the Vatican, where the two leaders exchanged warm greetings ahead of the official mass marking the beginning of the Pope\u2019s pontificate.<\/p>\n
The meeting took place shortly before the solemn installation mass for Pope Leo XIV, the 267th Bishop of Rome and spiritual head of the Roman Catholic Church, scheduled for May 18.<\/p>\n
President Tinubu arrived in Rome earlier in the day in response to a special invitation extended by the Vatican. The new Pope, who once served in the Apostolic Nunciature in Lagos during the 1980s, expressed deep affection for Nigeria in his letter to President Tinubu, describing the country as \u201ca nation particularly dear to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the President\u2019s spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, the invitation underscored the significance of Tinubu\u2019s presence at a time of global challenges, marked by escalating conflicts and humanitarian concerns. \u201cThe Holy See believes President Tinubu\u2019s attendance is important in showing unity, peace, and global cooperation at this critical moment,\u201d Onanuga said.<\/p>\n
President Tinubu was accompanied by a delegation that included prominent Nigerian Catholic figures such as Archbishop Lucius Ugorji, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama, Archbishop Alfred Martins, and Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah.<\/p>\n
The encounter between the Nigerian leader and the Holy Father is seen as a significant gesture of diplomatic goodwill and interfaith solidarity at a time when religious tolerance and peacebuilding remain pressing global priorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Sunday met with His Holiness, Pope Leo XIV, at the Vatican, where the two leaders exchanged warm greetings ahead of the official mass marking the beginning of the Pope\u2019s pontificate. The meeting took place shortly before the solemn installation mass for Pope Leo XIV, the 267th Bishop of Rome and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[168,1099,2711,2710,2709,1679],"class_list":["post-4231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion","tag-diplomatic","tag-installation","tag-interfaith","tag-pontificate","tag-solemn","tag-solidarity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4233,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4231\/revisions\/4233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}