ROME (AP) — 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.

The Vatican didn’t say why Leo decided to preside over the ceremony, though he had attended it in years past as a cardinal. The corps’ commander, Col. Christoph Graf, told the recruits, their family members and Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter that it was t

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