The pope issued his appeal at the end of his public audience in the Vatican on Wednesday, as efforts are underway to bring a ceasefire in Gaza and broker a peace accord between Ukraine and Russia.
Gerard O’Connell
Gerard O’Connell is America’s senior Vatican correspondent and author of The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Story of the Conclave That Changed History. He has been covering the Vatican since 1985.
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Pope Francis is a hard act to follow. But Leo XIV is filling the role with remarkable ease.
Inside the new pope’s first 100 days
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Leo’s message to Gen Z: ‘You are a sign that a different world is possible’
At a Mass for the Jubilee of Youth outside Rome, Pope Leo exhorted over a million young people to be “seeds of hope” and a “sign that a different world is possible.”
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Leo appoints French archbishop to lead Vatican sex abuse commission
Pope Leo XIV named the French archbishop Thibault Verny as the new president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. He succeeds Cardinal Seán O’Malley, 81, the emeritus archbishop of Boston.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Leo XIV: Western Christians must reject ‘fake news’ and help the suffering Eastern churches
Pope Leo XIV denounced the “violent conflict [that] seems to be raging in the Christian East with a diabolical intensity previously unknown” and said the Christians of the West must do more to help the Christians of the East, especially those suffering in Ukraine, Gaza and other places in the Middle East.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Leo calls for Middle East peace after ‘heinous terrorist attack’ on church in Syria
Aware of the deep concern this new act of violence has caused among Christians in this part of the world, Pope Leo offered these words of assurance: “I say to the Christians of the Middle East: I am close to you! The whole church is close to you!”
Posted inPolitics & Society, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Leo calls for stop to the Israel-Iran war after U.S. bombs Iranian nuclear sites
“Let diplomacy silence the guns!” Pope Leo XIV told the crowd in St. Peter’s Square a few hours after the United States entered the Iran-Israel war by bombing three of Iran’s nuclear sites.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope says the church ‘needs journalists’ to maintain a culture of prevention in response to the abuse crisis
Pope Leo XIV’s statement was read at the premiere of a play about the Peruvian investigative journalist Paola Ugaz, who was subject to death threats because of her reporting on sexual abuse.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Vatican Dispatch
As war rages between Israel and Iran, Pope Leo renews appeal to seek peace ‘through dialogue and diplomatic means’
Pope Leo XIV renewed his “appeal for peace” in an interview after a surprise visit to the Vatican Radio Center.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Vatican Dispatch
As Trump threatens Iran, Pope Leo issues a strong warning against modern weapons of war
Pope Leo XIV called on world leaders to reject the temptation to use “powerful and sophisticated weapons,” as President Donald J. Trump aired the possibility of using massive bombs to destroy Iran’s Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant.