Pope Leo XIV called for a genuine and just peace in Ukraine and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, in his first Sunday noon blessing as pontiff that featured some symbolic gestures suggesting a message of unity in a polarized Catholic Church.
“I too address the world's great powers by repeating the ever-present call ‘never again war,’” Leo said from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica to an estimated 100,000 people below.
It was the first time that Leo had returned to the loggia since he first appeared to the world on Thursday evening following his remarkable election as pope, the first from the United States. Then too he delivered a message of peace.
Leo was picking up the papal tradition of offering a Sunday blessing at noon, but with several twists. Whereas his predecessors delivered the greeting from the studio window of the Apostolic Palace, off to the side of the piazza, Leo went to the very center of the square and the heart of the church.
He also offered a novelty by singing the Regina Caeli prayer, a Latin prayer said during the Easter season which recent popes would usually just recite.
Traditionalists and conservatives, many of whom felt alienated by Pope Francis' reforms and loose liturgical style, have been looking for gestures hinting at Leo's priorities. Some have expressed cautious optimism at the very least with a return to a traditional style that Leo exhibited on Thursday night, when he wore the formal red cape of the papacy that Francis had eschewed.
On hand in the square on Sunday for Leo's first noon prayer were two of Europe's more firebrand conservatives, Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini. The Italian minister has highlighted his Catholic faith in his political messaging.
On Sunday Leo wore the simple white cassock of the papacy and had reverted back to wearing his silver pectoral cross. He had worn a more ornate one that contains the relics of St. Augustine and his mother, St. Monica, on Thursday night that had been given to him by his Augustinian religious order.
‘Beloved Ukrainian people’
Leo quoted Pope Francis in denouncing the number of conflicts ravaging the globe today, saying it was a “third world war in pieces.”
“I carry in my heart the sufferings of the beloved Ukrainian people," he said. “Let everything possible be done to achieve genuine, just and lasting peace as soon as possible.”
He called for the release of war prisoners and the return of Ukrainian children to their families, and welcomed the ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
He also called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and for humanitarian relief to be provided to the “exhausted civilian population and all hostages be freed.”
Leo also noted that Sunday was Mother’s Day in many countries and wished all mothers, “including those in heaven” a Happy Mother’s Day.
The crowd, filled with marching bands in town for a special Jubilee weekend, erupted in cheers and music as the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica tolled.
Angela Gentile of Bari arrived in the square three hours early to be in place. Nonplussed that cardinals had elected yet another non-Italian pope, she said she was happy Leo came to the central balcony of the basilica, so the crowd could see him face-to-face. “What’s good for the Holy Spirit works for me,” she said. “I have trust.”
More than 50 pilgrims from Houston, Texas, were in the square too, waving three large American flags. They were in Rome on a pre-planned Holy Year pilgrimage and said they were proud to be part of this historic occasion.
“Words cannot express my admiration and gratitude to God,” said the Rev. Dominic Nguyen, who led the Vietnamese American group. He said he hoped the pope would be happy to see the Stars and Stripes but also Peruvian flags and all other countries, showing the universality of the church.
Leo's Peruvian roots
Leo, the former Robert Prevost, spent most of his priestly life as a missionary then bishop in Peru, an experience he recalled on Thursday night in offering a special greeting to his former diocese in Chiclayo in Spanish.
Bertha Santander of Peru had come five hours early on Sunday to unfurl her huge Peruvian flag in the piazza, recalling the emotion of that night when the piazza erupted in cheers as Leo first appeared.
“It’s such happiness,” she said. “Already when I heard the last name I started crying and when he addressed a greeting in Spanish I was a sea of tears,” said the Peruvian woman who has lived in Italy for more than 40 years.
Earlier Sunday, Leo celebrated a private Mass near the tomb of St. Peter and prayed at the tombs of several past popes. Vatican Media filmed him praying before a mix of more progressive and tradition-minded popes: Pope Paul VI, who closed out the modernizing reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council, and Popes Pius XII and Benedict XVI, on the more conservative end of the spectrum.
He celebrated the Mass with the head of his Augustinian order, the Rev. Alejandro Moral Anton, and Leo's brother in the pews. The Mass occurred in the grottoes underneath St. Peter’s, the traditional burial place of St. Peter, the apostle who is considered the be the first pope.
Leo on Saturday prayed before the tomb of Francis, located across town at the St. Mary Major Basilica.
The 69-year-old Chicago-born missionary was elected 267th pope on Thursday following the April 21 death of Francis.
He has a busy week of audiences before his formal installation Mass next Sunday.
