President Julius Maada Bio has met His Holiness Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, in his first official audience with the new Pontiff since his election in May 2025.
The meeting took place at the Apostolic Palace in Rome, where President Bio was received by the Pope for private talks.
President Bio later described the meeting as a “profound honour” in a post on social media, sharing several photographs showing him shaking hands with the Pope and in discussion inside the Vatican.
“I had the profound honour of meeting His Holiness Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican today,” President Bio said. “I commended his moral leadership and his message of peace, unity and compassion for the world.”
This is the first time the two leaders have met face-to-face since Pope Leo XIV became the head of the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic Church.
Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago, USA, made history on 8 May 2025 when he was elected the 267th Pope after the death of Pope Francis. He is the first American to become Pope and also holds Peruvian citizenship after serving for decades as a missionary and Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru.
The audience is significant for Sierra Leone, where the Catholic Church is a key partner in education and health. The Church runs hundreds of schools, hospitals and vocational centres across the country and was instrumental in peacebuilding during and after the civil war.
President Bio had previously attended the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome on 26 April 2025, a trip that sparked debate at home because it clashed with Sierra Leone’s Independence Day on 27 April. He was also notably absent from the official list of African leaders invited to Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration mass in May.
Today’s meeting is therefore seen as an important step in strengthening relations between Freetown and the Holy See.
State House is yet to release full details of what was discussed, but Vatican audiences with heads of state typically focus on global peace, climate change, human capital development, and the work of the Church in local communities.
President Bio is on a working visit to Europe and is expected to hold more engagements in the coming days.
