Pope Leo Calls the Popemobile an Instrument of Encounter
At the Vatican Museums opening, the pope met Mercedes executives as an exhibit traced papal cars from Pius XI’s 1930 Pullman to the present.
On October 28, Pope Leo XIV received executives from Mercedes-Benz in a private audience at the Apostolic Palace. The meeting marked nearly 100 years of the German manufacturer's work building vehicles for the popes. That same day, the Vatican Museums opened the exhibit “A Century of the Popemobile.”
The exhibition displays the 1930 Nürburg 460 Pullman presented to Pope Pius XI—the first official papal automobile delivered by the company—alongside the Fiat 1107 Nuova Campagnola in which St. John Paul II was shot in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981.
Speaking to the executives, Pope Leo XIV described the popemobile as having become "an instrument of encounter, enabling the pontiff to draw closer to the faithful." He encouraged the company to place "technological innovation at the service of human dignity, care for creation, and the common good."
Marc Langenbrinck, CEO of Mercedes-Benz Italy, said the occasion was "the most beautiful day of my career because I am Catholic." Marcus Breitschwerdt, an executive vice president of the company, explained that no Mercedes-Benz employee—including the chief executive—is permitted to sit in the pope's seat. He pointed to the armored construction and secured glass of the vehicles, designed to protect the Holy Father in dense crowds while keeping him visible to the faithful.
Nearly a Century of Service
The partnership between Mercedes-Benz and the Holy See began with the 1930 delivery of that Nürburg 460 Pullman to Pius XI. In the decades that followed, successive popes made use of the company's models. After the 1981 assassination attempt on St. John Paul II, Mercedes-Benz vehicles became central to papal security arrangements, offering armor and protected glass suited to public appearances.
Papal transport has a longer history still. For centuries the pope was carried on a portable ceremonial throne. In 1859, Pope Pius IX received a train for travel within the Papal States. In the motor age, the word "popemobile" was first applied to a 1965 Lincoln Continental used by St. Paul VI. Open and closed models, some glass-enclosed, have since accompanied pontiffs on apostolic journeys across the world.
The Vatican exhibit gathers these chapters in one place, from the Pullman of Pius XI to the vehicle forever linked to the suffering of St. John Paul II. The private audience with Pope Leo XIV ties that past to the present: a means of transport that allows the Successor of Peter to meet his people under conditions of safety the Church has learned, at great cost, are necessary.