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 polarised Catholic Church.
โI, too, address the worldโs great powers by repeating the ever-present call โnever again warโ,โ Leo said from the loggia of St Peterโs 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 some 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 centre of the square and the heart of the church.
Part of that was logistics: he did not have access to the papal apartments in the palace until later Sunday, when they were unsealed for the first time since Pope Francisโ death.