Source : the age
By David Crowe
Rome: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has met Catholic Church leaders in Rome ahead of the inauguration mass for Pope Leo XIV, joining them at a sanctuary church that welcomes visiting Australians.
Albanese met Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher and Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli at the church centre, which also houses Australians who have come to Rome for the mass.
Anthony Albanese with Archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli and Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher in Rome.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The church, called the Sanctuary of our Lady of Pompeii, has a connection with Pope Leo because he was elected by cardinals on May 8, the feast day for Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii.
Albanese spoke briefly in the church’s rose garden, known as Domus Australia, about the importance of the inauguration mass for Australia’s 5 million Catholics.
Earlier, the nation’s top diplomat at the Vatican, Keith Pitt, was stepping up attempts to bring Pope Leo to Australia in the first papal visit in two decades, in a key message ahead of the inauguration Mass on Sunday to confirm the new pope in office.
The Australian ambassador-designate to the Holy See, also a former cabinet minister, Pitt was making the formal invitation one of the major priorities for the embassy as the new papacy begins.
Keith Pitt, Australia’s ambassador-designate to the Holy See, greets Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as he arrives in Rome ahead of Sunday’s inauguration mass for Pope Leo.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
In an interview ahead of the inauguration Mass, Pitt named issues ranging from climate change, artificial intelligence and child sexual abuse as areas where the Australian government would seek to work with the new pope.
He said Australia also wanted to work with Pope Leo and the Vatican on helping Pacific Island nations, a region with large numbers of Catholics.
“Part of the role of the embassy is to elevate, in the minds of those decision makers in the Vatican, why it’s so important that Pope Leo comes to Australia,” Pitt said.
“I think that this is a unique opportunity.
“So we’ll take every opportunity to continue to put forward that invitation and highlight why it’s important for the more than 5 million Catholics in Australia.”
Australia will host a global Catholic event, the International Eucharistic Congress, in Sydney in 2028, and church leaders hope Pope Leo will attend.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on May 9, hours after Pope Leo was elected by a conclave of the College of Cardinals, that he would invite the Pope to visit Australia for the congress.
Pitt is expected to have an audience with the Pope when he presents his diplomatic credentials to the Vatican, the formal step in being recognised as an ambassador to the small but highly influential state. Pitt resigned as a Nationals MP after 12 years in federal parliament when Albanese named him to the diplomatic post in February. He takes up a position role previously held by Tim Fischer, the former Nationals leader.
Pope Leo leading prayers in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican last week.Credit: Getty Images
Pitt said his priority was to act on the prime minister’s invitation and make the case for the papal visit.
Pope Benedict XVI visited Australia for World Youth Day in 2008 and Pope Paul VI made the first papal visit to Australia in 1970 as part of a pilgrimage across Asia and the Pacific.
Pitt noted that Pope Leo’s first statement as pontiff was “peace be with you” and said this was aligned with Australia’s interest in ending conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Pope Leo will mark the beginning of his pontificate in Rome on Sunday with a Mass that is expected to be attended by tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square.
Pope Benedict XVI with then-prime minister Kevin Rudd while visiting Sydney for World Youth Day in 2008.Credit: AP
Albanese arrived in Rome on Friday night, local time, and was due to attend the Mass with leaders including US Vice President J.D. Vance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Albanese will also see some of his extended family in Rome, although his office denied a news report saying he had invited his half-brother to join Australians at the Mass.
The Mass begins at 10am local time (6pm on Sunday AEST) and is expected to follow a visit by the Pope to St Peter’s tomb in the basilica, named after the first pope.
After the visit to the basilica, church leaders present the Pope with the pallium, a vestment that signifies his assumption of the papacy, and a fisherman’s ring, the symbol of the first apostles being “fishers of men” in the gospels.
While Pitt was a critic of Labor policy on energy during his time in parliament, he said his task as an ambassador was to represent Australian policy on climate change to the Vatican.
Pope Leo raised concerns about artificial intelligence in an address last Saturday about the threat to “human dignity, justice and labour” from technology that could undermine humanity.
Keith Pitt, Australia’s ambassador-designate to the Holy See, at the Vatican City.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
Pitt said Australia and the Vatican could find some common interest in the global debate about technology given the federal government’s plan to restrict social media for people under 16 and set guidelines around artificial intelligence.
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