VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Leo XIV took his first trip outside the Vatican on Saturday, heading about an hour’s drive east of Rome to the small Italian town of Genazzano to visit a shrine to the Virgin Mary.
The new pontiff arrived for the unannounced visit in the passenger seat of a Volkswagen vehicle and was greeted to cheers from crowds gathered outside the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel.
Leo, the former U.S. Cardinal Robert Prevost, was elected pope on May 8. He is a member of the Augustinian religious order, which runs the shrine in Genazzano.
Leo shook hands and offered blessings to a few people in the crowd before entering the shrine.
The late Pope Francis, who died on April 21, made surprise visits to Catholic sites near Rome quite frequently. He was particularly devoted to Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major, another Marian shrine, and chose to be buried there.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee, editing by Alvise Armellini and Timothy Heritage)
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