At the invitation of Pope Leo XIV, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will embark on a trip from Abuja to Rome on Saturday, May 18, to witness the formal installation of the newly elected pontiff, the Presidency confirmed Thursday. Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, ascended to the papacy 27 days following the death of his predecessor, Pope Francis, on April 21. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The conclave of Cardinals elected him as the 267th Bishop of Rome and head of the Roman Catholic Church. Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, disclosed in an official statement that Tinubu\u2019s delegation will include prominent Nigerian Catholic leaders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The president is scheduled to participate in a solemn mass inaugurating the new pontiff\u2019s ministry, a pivotal moment for global Catholics amid what the Pope described as a world \u201cafflicted by many tensions and conflicts.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Highlighting the significance of Tinubu\u2019s attendance, Onanuga shared excerpts from the papal invitation penned by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, in which Pope Leo XIV expressed a personal connection to Nigeria: \u201cYour great nation is particularly dear to me as I worked in the Apostolic Nunciature in Lagos during the 1980s.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The invitation stressed the president\u2019s \u201cphysical presence at this moment of particular importance for the Catholic Church and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The presidential entourage features Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, alongside senior clergy such as Archbishop Lucius Ugorji (President of the Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference), Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja, Archbishop Alfred Martins of Lagos, and Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto Diocese. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The inauguration ceremony will take place at Vatican City\u2019s St. Peter\u2019s Square on Sunday, May 19, with President Tinubu expected to return to Abuja on Tuesday, May 20. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Onanuga reiterated the diplomatic and spiritual weight of the visit, underscoring Nigeria\u2019s longstanding ties to the Holy See and the Pope\u2019s prior engagement in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At the invitation of Pope Leo XIV, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will embark on a trip from Abuja to Rome on Saturday, May 18, to witness the formal installation of the newly elected pontiff, the Presidency confirmed Thursday. Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, ascended to the papacy 27 days following the death of his predecessor, Pope Francis, on April 21. The conclave of Cardinals elected him as the 267th Bishop of Rome and head of the Roman Catholic Church. Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, disclosed in an official statement that Tinubu\u2019s delegation will include prominent Nigerian Catholic leaders. The president is scheduled to participate in a solemn mass inaugurating the new pontiff\u2019s ministry, a pivotal moment for global Catholics amid what the Pope described as a world \u201cafflicted by many tensions and conflicts.\u201d Highlighting the significance of Tinubu\u2019s attendance, Onanuga shared excerpts from the papal invitation penned by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, in which Pope Leo XIV expressed a personal connection to Nigeria: \u201cYour great nation is particularly dear to me as I worked in the Apostolic Nunciature in Lagos during the 1980s.\u201d The invitation stressed the president\u2019s \u201cphysical presence at this moment of particular importance for the Catholic Church and the world.\u201d The presidential entourage features Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, alongside senior clergy such as Archbishop Lucius Ugorji (President of the Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference), Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja, Archbishop Alfred Martins of Lagos, and Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto Diocese. The inauguration ceremony will take place at Vatican City\u2019s St. Peter\u2019s Square on Sunday, May 19, with President Tinubu expected to return to Abuja on Tuesday, May 20. Onanuga reiterated the diplomatic and spiritual weight of the visit, underscoring Nigeria\u2019s longstanding ties to the Holy See and the Pope\u2019s prior engagement in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25254,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25253\/revisions\/25254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}