Speaker Anita Among meets Pope Leo XVI at the Vatican

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Speaker of Parliament Anita Among, on Wednesday, August 13, 2025, met Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican City of Rome, following a Mass during which prayers were offered for peace, unity and love among nations.

The Speaker was later scheduled to meet the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro. Videos shared of the meeting show Speaker Among gifting the Pope with a rosary, they then briefly engage in a private chat before she is seen introducing her entourage.

“It is always fulfilling to visit the Vatican and join Catholic faithful worldwide to pray together and renew our faith,” Among posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost, is the first pope from the United States, elected on May 8, 2025, following the death of Pope Francis.

This will be the Speaker's ninth meeting with Popes, having met the late Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday at the age of 88 seven times. Among also attended his sendoff.

In her previous interview with the New Vision, Among revealed that the late Pope Francis was an amazing person.

“Whenever we would go there, we would have a private meeting where he would tell us how much we should support and love the church.  He encouraged us to talk to the Christians out there and encourage them to have developmental activities that would help them grow in the faith and also grow the church." 

She said Francis loved and preached unity and peace.

"No wonder on Easter Sunday, his last message to the world was about peace and how we should embrace peace."

Among further fondly reminisced about her encounters with the pope.

“Whenever we would go there, he knew me by name and would call me and say 'my daughter you are here'. He would start laughing.

"He said he loved Uganda, and his love for Uganda was out of the Uganda martyrs. And he would even say you have a very brilliant leader, President Yoweri Museveni. I have been to Uganda and we love Uganda and we are going to have a canonization of the martyrs' and that is one reason that he even allowed the canonization of the martyrs to be hosted in the Vatican last year.”

In 2015, Francis became the third pope to visit Uganda, two years into his papacy. He came to Uganda as a pilgrim to venerate the holy martyrs.

His predecessors, Pope John Paul II and Pope Paul VI, visited Uganda in 1993 and 1964, respectively.

'I have my own luck'

Speaker Among said four of her eight meetings with Pope Francis were private audiences.

"I started meeting the Pope when I was a Member of Parliament in the tenth Parliament. When I would go to meet him, he would hold my hand and say we pray. When he prays for you, you feel light in your body. You feel there is something cold and that is the Pope, who has gone to be with the Lord.”

“Some people have tried, but I have my own luck and blessing and I am happy that he has passed on when he has given me all the blessing.  That is why you find all these people who fight me scattering around because I have that blessing. I am covered by the blood of Jesus.”

Among said she was blessed with twins from the prayers and engagements with the pope.