President Bola Tinubu has joined the Roman Catholic Church in celebrating Pope Leo XIV’s accession as the church’s new leader and Bishop of Rome.
The Nigerian leader also prayed for the next Pope to have a successful term.
Bayo Onanuga, the president’s spokesperson, said in a statement on Thursday that his principal hoped for the next Pope to have a successful tenure.
The statement partly read. “The President felicitates the Conclave for electing the American Robert Francis Cardinal Prevost as the 267th Bishop of Rome. President Tinubu rejoices with the leadership and congregants of the Catholic Church in Nigeria on the historic election of the new Pontiff, whose message of faith and hope already resonates across the globe, with a reassurance from the scriptures of a more peaceful world.”
Tinubu said Nigeria and the Holy See have shared values over many years.
He also recognised the fruitful collaboration with the Catholic Church in areas such as infrastructure, healthcare, education, peacebuilding, and, more recently, the advancement of technology to enhance human potential. He is optimistic that Pope Leo XIV’s election will usher in a new era for the Catholic Church and the principles of love, humanity, and charity, especially for the poor, that it has always advocated.
In order to spread the message of love and peace across the world, the President prayed that the Almighty God would continue to shine his light of glory over the new head of the Catholic Church and provide him good health and wisdom.
Cardinals from all across the world elected Robert Francis Prevost as Pope Leo XIV on Thursday, making him the first American to lead the 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide.
When Leo, the late Pope Francis’s successor, stepped on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica to give his first speech as pope, tens of thousands of supporters cheered.
“To all people, wherever they are, to all peoples, to the whole Earth, peace be with you,” a smiling Leo told the crowd.
“Help us, and each other, to build bridges through dialogue, through encounter, to come together as one people, always in peace.”
Leo’s speech drew warm applause, especially a section where the prelate who spent many years in Peru broke into Spanish and also when he paid tribute to his popular predecessor Francis, who died last month.
“We still keep in our ears that weak, but always courageous, voice of Pope Francis blessing Rome,” he said, referring to the ailing Argentine’s Easter Sunday address, a day before his death.
“We must seek together how to be a missionary Church, a Church that builds bridges, which holds dialogues, which is always open,” he said.
