Jewish leaders got front seats at Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration Mass. An American rabbi there, and other Jewish representatives, saw that and other gestures from Leo as hopeful signs for upswing of Catholic-Jewish relations under the first U.

Cardinal Robert Prevost, who was just elected as Pope Leo XIV, studied under a pioneer in Jewish-Catholic relations when he attended seminary in Chicago. Rev. John T. Pawlikowski, who taught for nearly half a century at the Catholic Theological Union until his retirement in 2017,

Pope Leo XIV will preside over his inaugural Mass on Sunday morning in front of a crowd in St. Peter’s Square that will include world leaders and top church officials, a service that officially installs him as leader of 1.