“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.

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.

Pope Leo XIV renewed his “appeal for peace” in an interview after a surprise visit to the Vatican Radio Center.

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.

Pope Leo called for a “commitment to build a world that is safer and free from the nuclear threat.”

The Holy Spirit "writes in our hearts before all else the commandment of love that the Lord has made the center and summit of everything,” the pope said.

Pope Leo told his ecumenical audience: “By celebrating together this Nicene faith and by proclaiming it together, we will also advance towards the restoration of full communion among us.”

Pope Leo and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke together by phone today, June 4, for the first time, the Kremlin said.

Pope Leo XIV “is the man the church and the world need right now” and his greatest challenge, “the one he’ll carry most in his heart, is peace in the world.”

In a celebration of the Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents and the Elderly, Pope Leo XIV reminded the congregation of the importance of family in passing on the faith and ensuring the future of humanity.