(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 07.06.2025).- According to a statement from the Holy See Press Office, on Friday morning, June 6, Pope Leo XIV received in audience, at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, who later met with the Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, accompanied by Monsignor Miroslaw Wachowski, Under-Secretary for Relations with States.
«During the cordial conversation at the Secretariat of State,» reads the statement issued at the end of Mattarella’s first official visit to the new Pontiff, «satisfaction was expressed over the existing good bilateral relations. They focused on international issues, with particular attention to the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.»
“During the conversation — as the note reads — some social issues were
discussed, with particular reference to the Church’s contribution to the life of the country.» The President of the Italian Republic, who arrived at the Vatican shortly before 9:00 a.m., the time scheduled for the audience, was accompanied by his daughter Laura, his other children and grandchildren, and by a delegation composed, among others, of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani. Pope Francis and the Head of State had already met on May 18 in St. Peter’s Basilica, at the end of the Mass to inaugurate the pontificate.
According to ANSA, the Holy Father presented the President of the Republic with Pope Francis’s Message for the 2025 World Day of Peace. Mattarella presented Leo XIV with two 16th-century volumes, including a Life of Saint Augustine. In addition to his daughter Laura, the Head of State was accompanied on his visit to the Vatican by his two sons, their wives, and his five grandchildren.
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