Pope Leon XIV, a message to the peoples who suffer from the war: “We invoke courage to those dedicated to the sincere search for peace”
Pope Leon XIV sent a message of solidarity and hope for the peoples affected by armed conflicts, within the prayer “Regina Caeli”, celebrated for the first time from the window of the apostolic palace.
Pope Leon XIV was elected on May 8. Photo: Profimedia
In front of thousands of believers gathered in Saint Peter Square in Rome, the Pontifical Sovereign said that “Our prayer embraces all the people who suffer from the war.”
“We invoke courage and perseverance for all those dedicated to dialogue and sincere search for peace,” Added the leader of the Catholic Church on Sunday, May 25, without direct reference to the situations in Ukraine or the Gaza strip, as he had proceeded on other occasions, EFE said, taken over by Agerpres.
Pope Leon XIV, chosen on May 8 instead of the late Pope Francis, held his first general audience on May 21, on which occasion he launched a firm call for humanitarian assistance. The situation in Ukraine was not mentioned then.
Also, the Vatican offered to host possible peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. However, the Kremlin did not look excited about this idea. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that “It would be a little unequaled for Orthodox countries to use a Catholic platform to discuss problems about how to eliminate the profound causes of the conflict.”
The Vatican has a long tradition of discreet involvement in mediating international conflicts. A notable example was in 2019, when Pope Francis invited the rival leaders in the South Sudan to a summit organized in the Vatican Fortress, in order to boost the peace process in a devastating civil war.
