On his first Sunday appearance as pope, Leo XIV made a passionate appeal for peace and an end to the armed conflicts in the world, especially in Ukraine and Gaza, and cried out, “Never again war!”

Pope Leo XIV called for peace in Ukraine and Gaza in his first Sunday noon blessing as the new pope. ‘Never again war,’ he declared to the masses gathered below his balcony of St Peter’s Basilica. Recalling the end of the Second World War 80 years ago,

I, too, address the world’s great powers by repeating the ever-present call ‘never again war,’” Leo said from St. Peter’s Basilica.

Pope Leo XIV delivered his first Sunday noon blessing from the loggia at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, three days after the 69-year-old Chicago-born missionary made history as the first American elected to lead the Catholic Church.

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.

Leo spoke off-the-cuff in English to the cardinals who elected him to lead the Catholic Church and follow in Pope Francis’ social justice-minded footsteps.