According to the Presidency, the President is attending the event at the invitation of Pope Leo XIV, who conveyed the request through Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State.

President Bola Tinubu has arrived in Rome, Italy, to join other world leaders at the inaugural mass of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, the 267th Bishop of Rome and new leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

According to a statement by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, the installation mass will take place on Sunday, May 18, at the Vatican.

It was noted that President Tinubu "touched down at the Mario De Bernardo Military Airport at 6pm local time and was received by Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, along with officials from the Vatican and the Nigerian Embassy."

According to the Presidency, the President is attending the event at the invitation of Pope Leo XIV, who conveyed the request through Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State.

"The invitation emphasised the importance of the moment for the global Catholic community and the world at large, which is grappling with numerous tensions and conflicts."

"Your great nation is particularly dear to me, as I worked in the Apostolic Nunciature in Lagos during the 1980s," the Pope was quoted as saying in the invitation.

STATEHOUSE PRESS RELEASE

PRESIDENT TINUBU ARRIVES ROME

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu arrived in Rome, Italy, on Saturday to join other world leaders at the solemn mass marking the beginning of the Pontificate of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, the 267th Bishop of Rome and the new… pic.twitter.com/zdEGLQfWPu

— Bayo Onanuga (@aonanuga1956) May 17, 2025

President Tinubu is accompanied by leading figures of the Nigerian Catholic Church, including Archbishop Lucius Ugorji, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria and Archbishop of Owerri; Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja; Archbishop Alfred Martins of Lagos; and Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of the Sokoto Diocese.

The President’s visit highlights Nigeria’s commitment to fostering interfaith dialogue and global peace, especially in an era marked by widespread unrest.

Earlier, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) strongly condemned the invitation extended to Tinubu to attend the papal inauguration of Pope Leo XIV in Vatican City, citing severe religious persecution and mass atrocities committed against Nigerians under his leadership.

In a statement released on Saturday, Intersociety described the invitation as “undeserved” and “morally bankrupt.”

The organisation claimed that during President Tinubu’s two-year tenure (May 2023–May 2025), an estimated 15,640 Christians have been “hacked to death” and 14,600 others abducted by jihadist groups. “One Christian is killed every hour in Nigeria,” the group declared.

“The Vatican’s gesture is misguided,” said Emeka Umeagbalasi, Lead Researcher and Chairman of Intersociety. “It rewards complicity and silence in the face of atrocity.”

The group further criticised the inclusion of prominent Nigerian Catholic clerics in the presidential delegation, calling it “a disturbing endorsement of state failure.”

Intersociety warned that the collaboration between political leaders and religious figures risks turning clerics into “presidential image launderers,” who may “demarket the defense of the Christian faith.”