Pope Leo XIV (C) performs the Christmas Eve mass at St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican on December 24, 2025. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP via Getty Images)
VATICAN CITY - Pope Leo XIV presided over his first Christmas Mass celebration at St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. Leo celebrated Christmas Eve Mass.
Thousands of people flocked to Bethlehem's Manger Square on Christmas Eve as families there and at other sites across the Holy Land heralded a much-needed boost of holiday spirit, after two years of subdued celebrations because of the war in Gaza.
At the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV presided over his first Midnight Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. In his homily, he marveled at the "wisdom" of the Christmas story — an infant Jesus born to save mankind.
What they're saying:
"In the face of the suffering of the poor, (God) sends one who is defenseless to be the strength to rise again," the first U.S. pope told a packed basilica.
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Pope Leo’s first Christmas Eve Mass in Vatican City
We have all the live coverage this holiday season as Pope Leo XIV presides over his first Christmas Eve Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. This comes after earlier this week when Pope Leo XIV made an appeal for "one full day of peace throughout the world" in a Christmas address outside Castel Gandolfo in Rome. "I once again make this appeal to all people of good will: that, at least on the feast of the birth of the Savior, one day of peace may be respected," the first American pontiff said Tuesday.
Christmas at the Vatican
Dig deeper:
The Christmas tree in St. Peter's square in The Vatican. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP via Getty Images)
During Christmas, the Vatican is transformed to celebrate the season. An 80-foot-tall Christmas tree greets visitors as well as a life-size Nativity Scene.
A nativity scene from Mexico is also set up at St. Peter's Basilica. Photo: Sabine Dobel/dpa (Photo by Sabine Dobel/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
Once again this year, an international exhibition "100 Nativity Scenes in the Vatican" is on display featuring 132 Nativity scenes from 23 countries.
The backstory:
Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost, was elected as the 267th pontiff on May 8, 2025, after the College of Cardinals met in Vatican City following the death of Pope Francis to select a new Vicar of Christ. Following a lifetime of dedication to the Catholic Church in both Chicago and Peru, Prevost was elected as Francis' successor and the first pope from the United States.
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Robert Prevost addresses the crowd from the main central loggia balcony of the St Peter's Basilica for the first time, after the cardinals ended the conclave, in The Vatican, on May 8, 2025. (Photo by TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images)
Born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, to parents of Spanish and Franco-Italian descent, Pope Leo XIV is one of three siblings. His brothers are John Prevost and Louis Martin Prevost. His passion for the Catholic faith ignited at a young age, leading him to enter the seminary immediately after eighth grade. Among his interests, Pope Leo XIV is an amateur tennis player, a Chicago White Sox fan, and he obtained Peruvian citizenship in 2015.
The Source: The Associated Press contributed to this report. The information in this article was sourced from The Vatican, EWTN, FOX News, and previous FOX Television Stations reporting.