Pope Leo XIV presided Saturday over the swearing-in ceremony of 27 new Swiss Guards, lending some surprise star power to the pomp-filled ceremony as the corps struggles to find enough young men to serve in the world’s oldest standing army.
Leo sat in a throne in a courtyard of the Apostolic Palace as the new guards in their distinctive yellow, blue and red “gala uniforms” held their right arm up in a three-fingered salute and pledged “with all my strength, sacrifice and if necessary my life” to defend him and serve him.
