On the day of the snap legislative elections in Portugal, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who had already voted early, attended the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate at the Vatican. The Portuguese head of state conversed with the pontiff, presented him with a gift, and conveyed that Portugal eagerly anticipates his visit.
Notably, Marcelo was seated next to the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, and Delio Rossi, the former Italian footballer and coach. Following the mass, state leaders greeted Pope Leo XIV, with Marcelo taking the opportunity to present a rosary of Our Lady of Fatima to the Pope.
“Portugal is with you and looks forward to your visit,” Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa expressed to the Pope.
Upon his return to Lisbon, and hours before attending the election night at the Belém Palace, he addressed RTP and elaborated on his conversation with Leo XIV. “I naturally spoke to him about how Portugal would welcome, whenever he sees fit amidst his fundamental mission, a visit to Fatima or Portugal in general,” he stated.
The head of state highlighted “the gracious manner in which the Pope responded to the greetings of the Portuguese people and the Portuguese state.”
Marcelo also expressed being “impressed” by the mass, during which the new Pope “often spoke” of Francis, noting that figures from “all continents” were present.
He additionally praised the stance of the new Pope, “who is attentive to the world, to the world’s problems, to the economic and social issues that are arising today and are in many cases more serious and urgent than they were a few years ago.”
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa remarked that “it is no coincidence” that the Pope received the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in a “specific, private audience.”
With this gesture, the Pope “is signaling that, if necessary, he is available and has the physical and mental capacity to help build the peace that has been elusive, as we have observed in recent weeks and days,” the President considered.
Leo XIV has been elected as the 267th Pope in history, succeeding Francis (2013-2025), who passed away in April.
Born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago, the new pontiff, aged 69, also holds Peruvian citizenship, having spent most of his life in the Andean country.
